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Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX: WEED) (NYSE: CGC) recently congratulated the Canopy Rivers (TSXV: RIV) team for its commencement of trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “RIV” on September 20, 2018. Canopy Rivers, a unique investment and operating platform designed to pursue investment opportunities in the emergent global cannabis sector, was originally founded to diversify Canopy Growth’s cannabis supply streams. Canopy Rivers rapidly progressed into a worldwide strategic growth platform that builds value in cannabis venture partners by supporting each stage, from licensing and genetics to financial and strategic support, leveraging its affiliation with Canopy Growth. Presently, Canopy Rivers holds a diverse portfolio of strategic investments comprised of an innovative media platform, licensed cannabis producers and applicants, and a leading European hemp cultivator.
“Canopy Rivers presents a world of opportunity for its partners and for Canopy Growth. It’s the type of relationship that allows us to continue to grow our lead in this incredibly dynamic industry, and we at Canopy Growth couldn’t be more excited for Canopy Rivers to be taking this transformative step into the public markets,” Chairman and co-CEO of Canopy Growth and acting CEO of Canopy Rivers, Bruce Linton, stated in the news release. “Whether it’s access to new brands, new technologies, differentiated products, first rights to future financing opportunities, and even rights to future full acquisition, Rivers will build value for shareholders, including Canopy Growth by building value for its portfolio partners.”
To view the full press release, visit http://nnw.fm/oHD3D
About Canopy Rivers Inc.
Canopy Rivers is a unique investment and operating platform structured to pursue investment opportunities in the emerging global cannabis sector. Canopy Rivers works collaboratively with Canopy Growth (TSX: WEED, NYSE: CGC) to identify strategic counterparties seeking financial and/or operating support. Canopy Rivers has developed an investment ecosystem of complementary cannabis operating companies that represent various segments of the value chain across the emerging cannabis sector. As the portfolio continues to develop, constituents will be provided with opportunities to work with Canopy Growth and collaborate among themselves, which Canopy Rivers believes will maximize value for its shareholders and foster an environment of innovation, synergy and value creation for the entire ecosystem. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.CanopyRivers.com.
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New York, New York


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Buildings For Sale:Marymount School of New York has listed its five-story, 12,300-square-foot townhouse at 2 East 82nd Street between Fifth and Madison avenues for $32 million.
JPMorgan is looking to sell 195 Broadway for $800 million. The bank’s asset management arm owns a 95% stake in the 1.1 million-square-foot building through a partnership with L&L Holding and Beacon Capital. JPMorgan Asset Management is considering bids ranging from a 49% stake to a sale of full ownership. If 195 Broadway sold for $800 million, the asset manager would be realizing roughly $730 a square foot.
Buildings Sold:Savanna has a contract to buy the office buildings at 24-28 West 25th Street for about $110 million form Unizo Holdings.
60 Guilders and Carlyle have sold the retail co-op unit at 106 Spring Street to SL Green Realty for $79.5 million, a significant discount from the $105 million they originally paid for the space.
Nightingale Properties is in talks to buy 711 Fifth Avenue from Coca-Cola for $910 million. That price works out to more than $2,500 per square foot for the 354,000-square-foot building.
The Elad Group has picked up a trio of commercial units at the new luxury condominium tower it recently built with Silverstein Properties on the Upper West Side. Elad shelled out $51 million for the retail unit and two garages at One West End located at 11th Avenue and 59th street from the joint venture it has with Silverstein to construct the 43-story tower.
The New York County Law Association is selling their four-story, 89-year-old landmarked building at 14 Vesey Street to Jack Terzi for a price in the low $20 million range. The organization signed a lease for office space at 28 Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan. The lease spans around 20,000 square feet.
RFR Realty is buying 875 Washington Street for $129.5 million from ASB Real Estate. The firm plans to lease the entire office portion of the building to the co-working network Soho Works.
An LLC tied to hedge funder Mark Sonnino has sold the commercial office building at 555 West 25th Street for $43.3 million to a London-based developer. High Line Realty LLC, controlled by Sonnino, sold the six-story, 51,000-square-foot loft building to Mactaggart and Family Partners.
Premier Equities and Thor Equities sold a commercial condominium at 51 Greene Street to Acadia Realty Trust for $14.6 million.

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Paris is rediscovering its joie de vivre, as cafes and restaurants reopen for the first time since coronavirus forced them to close on March 14.
Many customers seemed to shrug off masks and social distancing as they streamed back to their neighbourhood bistros for a morning espresso or a three-course lunch, free to resume their lifestyles by a surprise announcement from French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We will rediscover … the art of living, our taste for freedom,” Mr Macron said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday night, citing progress in fighting the virus. “We will rediscover France.”
After two months of being totally shut down as part of France’s strict virus lockdown measures, restaurants outside the Paris region opened earlier this month.
Since June 2, Paris cafes have been allowed to serve people outside but not open their doors. Before Mr Macron’s speech, the full reopening was not expected until later this month.
At the Cafe Des Anges in the heart of the Bastille neighbourhood of Paris, customers seemed happy to reconnect and talked about the need to remain careful – yet almost noone wore a mask. France has the world’s fifth-highest recorded death toll from the virus, at 29,410.
“It’s like a renaissance, but with caution,” said customer Marie-Elisabeth Vilaine.
The reopening caught many restaurant owners off guard – just like the abrupt closure three months ago, when the prime minister announced that all the country’s restaurants had to shut down by midnight.
Paris seemed especially depressing as restaurants, the lifeblood of the city, stood closed with chairs stacked against the windows and menus gathering dust.
After three months of losses, some restaurateurs fear it will take a long time for business to come back. Some French restaurants are experimenting with plastic barriers and air-filtration systems to soothe fears. The risk of a second wave of infections remains real, notably after new virus clusters in some countries and US states were traced back to reopened restaurants or other sites.
France opened its borders to other European countries on Monday, as did several of its neighbours, in the hope of luring some visitors back. But tourists from the US, Asia and other continents will not be allowed back until at least July 1, and French authorities could reimpose restrictions in the case of new infections.
British tourists face a 14-day quarantine when they enter France now.


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The recent agreement by the EU bodies on the principles of the European Green Bond Standard (view article TSI kompakt 10 March 2023) has put the spotlight on the current status of the market for green bonds & sustainable securitisation. Secured funding instruments such as securitisations have their own complexities when it comes to sustainability. What does sustainable finance actually have in store for those who take care of secured and unsecured funding so that their companies turn green? How do market participants deal with the multitude of financial instruments? What experiences have they made so far with sustainable finance? What are the challenges in the operational funding business?
The market participants´view
We have discussed these and other questions in a roundtable with treasurers and financial market experts from Porsche Holding Salzburg Group (Austria) and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (Germany).


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Amazon is really trying to put to bed the issue of its censorship-like de-ranking of GLBT books that hit the social media headlines last weekend. They discovered THE problem was an error made by a French employee over the holiday weekend. Now, they want to get on with their life.
The revisionist historians are already calling the Twitter post and outrage as a work of a mob. Not the work of Internet friends or of a social network, but of an evil mob.
Except,… there are authors who have said that their GLBT-themed works were de-ranked months ago, not just last weekend when the supposed “error” was made.
I want to buy from Amazon, but I really want a more complete explanation that doesn’t have rough edges.
The best resource for more information I found this morning was Jon’s Blog .


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The tents are made completely in their Sugarhouse facility. Each piece of canvas, zipper and pole put together by hand.
The tent we see today, started with an idea from Jack Kirkham’s father in 1944. Jack now owns the store offering all your camping needs and the Kirkham Springbar.
Kirkham said, “My father ultimately came up with the product that was better quality and easier to set up more suited for the camping we do in Utah.”
That idea of giving what Utah what Utahns want rules Kirkham’s today. But it’s not just the Beehive state enjoying the Springbar.
Kirkham said, “We have sent tents to Asia, Australia, England and places like that.”
While Kirkham’s is the only place you can get the Springbar, their website fills the gap.
Kirkham said, “It’s such a high quality tent and a lot of cost in the labor, we find selling the tent direct makes it reasonably affordable.”
When it comes to where you spend your money, Kirkham’s hopes you will treat your local Utah companies well.
Kirkham said, “It adds distinction and interest to the whole mix of retailing, I think its important to have people like us.”
Supporting local families and our Utah community, Made in America.


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Premium vodka and white spirit Smirnoff has launched three new flavours of Smirnoff Twist. The new Orange, Raspberry & Vanilla flavours are expected to add to the excitements of the Smirnoff Citrus Twist launched earlier. Priced at a marginal premium over Smirnoff, the Twist range comes in 750 ml SKU and will be available in a unique twisted bottle.
Monopoly, the popular board game on buying and selling of properties, giving an opportunity to learn the tricks of the trade with play money and destinations, can now, for real, take one to Japan with their promotion event, the World Monopoly Championship. This year, popular toy maker Funskool brings the event to India.
Turner International Asia Pacific, has made a proposal to the Subhash Chandra-controlled Zee Telefilms for jointly floating a global sports channel. This comes close on the heels of Zee emerging as the highest bidder for the BCCI cricket telecast rights for the next four years.
The telecom regulator has released a consultation paper on issues relating to community radio. It refers to key issues like the rationale for community radio, present framework and progress of the scheme, issues relating to eligibility, licensing process, funding of community radio station and regulation and monitoring of the radio stations.
A year and a half back, three seasoned advertising and media professionals formed inc Communications. In the last financial year, the Delhi-based agency is believed to have closed its media billings at Rs 22 crore and this year, the group is eyeing at Rs 35 crore.
Dainik Bhaskar Indian Marketing Awards is an initiative to institutionalise and recognise excellence in marketing. It will examine the evolution of a brand in various dimensions. Parameters like sales promotion, below-the-line marketing campaigns and PR have been included alongside creative aspects mashed with media innovations.
“I do agree that the unified licensing regime will alter the way business is conducted in the media and communications domain. It calls for readjustment of business models in the incumbent industry. But we want to ensure that we do not ruin the business of existing players.”


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“Flappy Bird” was deleted from the App Store and Google Play earlier this week, but you can still play the game elsewhere.
Creator Dong Nguyen of Vietnam recently elaborated on his decision to take down the game.
“Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed,” he told Forbes. “But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it’s best to take down Flappy Bird. It’s gone forever.”
It was reported that Nguyen was making about $50,000 per day on in-game ads. “I don’t know the exact figure, but I do know it’s a lot,” he said.
Nguyen said he still has top games in the app store, including Super Ball Juggling and Shuriken Block. He said he won’t remove those games.
He said “Flappy Bird” was too stressful for him. “I couldn’t sleep,” he said, adding that “my life has not been as comfortable as I was before.”
“I don’t think it’s a mistake,” he said. “I have thought it through.”
There’s a number of clones of the game, but Nguyen doesn’t appear to mind.
“I have tried playing Ironpants,” he said of one clone. “It’s a good game.”
AP update on creator’s decision:
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The young Vietnamese creator of hit mobile game Flappy Bird has removed it from the App Store and Google Play saying it ruined his life.
The game which was uploaded in 2013 but only surged to the top in downloads earlier this year was removed early Monday.
The success of the game that based its appeal on being simple and also maddeningly difficult made its creator Nguyen Ha Dong, 29, a minor celebrity.
The game was downloaded more than 50 million times on App Store alone. In an interview with The Verge website, Dong said Flappy Bird was making $50,000 a day in advertising revenue
But tech blogger Carter Thomas said the sudden popularity of Flappy Bird might have been due to use of fake accounts run by computers to create downloads and reviews.
Thomas said he couldn’t prove his suspicion and that the success of Flappy Bird might also be explained by it being “just a wildly viral game.”
Dong, from Hanoi, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the Internet sensation caused by the game “ruins my simple life” and he now hated it.
“I will take Flappy Bird down. I cannot take this anymore,” he wrote.
Dong had agreed to talk to The Associated Press about the game in an interview scheduled for Friday, but canceled.
On Twitter he didn’t address the inflated downloads allegation but denied suggestions he was withdrawing the game because it breached another game maker’s copyright.
“It is not anything related to legal issues. I just cannot keep it anymore,” he wrote.


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Avenue A Razorfish and OgilvyInteractive came in as industry leaders, according to the Forrester Wave Interactive Marketing Agencies Q4 Report, with Sapient close behind.
The report, which examines the interactive space each quarter, found that as consumers adopt more emerging technology channels, agencies have to be ready to design for these audiences. It also highlighted the growing role of measurement, analytics, social media and audience research.
According to the report, Razorfish and Ogilvy led because of their experience with emerging media, their audience reach and their overall strong comprehension of the interactive space. Sapient owes its success in the report to its ability to link technology to measurement.
Digitas followed close behind with its analytics and measurement abilities aiding its status. VML also appeared, owing its success to its understanding of the need to meet shareholder expectations.
Critical Mass and IMC also made the grade, making the strong performers list with its strengths coming from e-mail, search, display, creative and site design noted by Forrester.


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Chicken fans could be in for a treat as a popular American fast food chain looks to be continuing its plans to open in the UK.
Chick-fil-A is the third-largest fast food chain in the USA thanks to its chicken sandwiches - but has been solely based in America since it was founded in 1946.
Recent months have seen the chain trying out pop-up restaurants in UK cities - including Edinburgh last year - and a new one has just opened at the Oracle shopping centre in Reading.
It would be huge news if the chain decides to expand across the UK.
It currently has 2,000 restaurants in the USA and this year revealed plans to open in Canada for the first time - with 15 restaurants around Toronto employing up to 75 people per location.
Diners were trying out the new the chicken shop in The Oracle shopping centre on Thursday, October 10, reports BerkshireLive .
Chick-fil-A, pronounced chik-fil-AY, is a much loved chain in the US for serving nuggets, chicken sandwiches, waffle potato fries and more.
The chain was founded by, Samuel Truett Cathy, a devout Southern Baptist and the family business continues to uphold Christian beliefs, with all restaurants closed on Sundays, Christmas and Thanksgiving.
BerkshireLive has contacted Chick-fil-A and The Oracle for more information.


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Lava, a popular Indian smartphone-producing brand, has confirmed on Twitter that the company is working on a new smartphone for the Indian market. As per the tweet, the device will be known as Lava Blaze NXT. The smartphone will most probably serve as the successor of the other two Lava blaze phones available in the market. A teaser video of the device has been shared on Twitter by Lava. Nonetheless, the brand has not revealed the design of the device.
The teaser indicates that the smartphone will ship with high RAM capacity and a powerful processor. The handset will be available exclusively on the online shopping website Amazon. The smartphone already has a landing page on the platform that confirms the launch time and date, November 25th at 12:00 AM, of the device.
What can we get to see in Lava Blaze NXT?
There has been no leak regarding the specifications and features of the smartphone. However, one thing which we are sure of is that the device will get at least FHD+ resolution with a high refresh rate as its predecessor ships with an HD+ resolution display and 90Hz refresh rate. We can also get to see fast charging speed in the upcoming Lava Blaze NXT.
high chances are that the smartphone will be powered by a MediaTek processor, better than the Dimensity 700 SoC which was available in the Lava Blaze 5G, along with up to 6GB RAM and around 128GB internal storage. No doubt the device will have a durable battery of around 5000mAh battery that will be able to go on for a long time without any need for a charger. Talking about the camera, the handset can also get a dual or a triple rear camera system with 1080p video recording support.
There is no word on the tentative pricing of the smartphone while writing this article. However, the readers would not have to wait for long as the device will be launched in a few hours from now.
For all the latest Technology News Click Here


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What to expect at car dealerships as Louisiana reopens
As more and more customers begin to trickle back into his dealerships, Thad Ryan feels it’s imperative to ease their minds beginning with optics.
When automobile shoppers and potential buyers walk through the doors at either Ryan Chevrolet-Cadillac or Ryan Honda, both located on Oliver Road in Monroe, will be dealers wearing masks. Customer areas inside the dealership as well as the service department will be guarded with protective glass while few chairs will be available for waiting as social distancing continues to be important for public health.
“I’m kind of germ sensitive,” Ryan said. “It’s about optics and I think our customers want to see we’re doing things to keep them safe. I’m glad to see that this state is reopening with Phase One. I don’t know what it’s going to do and I don’t know what the answer is. But we’ve got to go back to work.”
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, who Ryan praised for his handling of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced the state’s move to Phase One reopening, which lifted restrictions on most non-essential businesses such as restaurants, houses of worship, movie theaters, casinos, hair and nail salons as well as gyms.
Car lots and their service departments never closed during the public health scare as they were deemed essential because workers and individuals need their vehicles to get around. But owners of the dealerships have no plans to operate like business as usual even as Louisiana shifts closer to normal.
Steve Taylor, who owns Car Town lots in both Monroe and West Monroe, said his locations aren’t back to full strength. But that he’ll play it by ear as the state reopens.
“We’re not quite back to full strength, but we’ve got most of our employees back. We want to hold the amount of people in our dealerships down because we’re making sure we’re safe,” Taylor said. “We’re not back to normal. We’re not shaking hands. If people start coughing in our office, we’re going to ask them to please go outside. We want to get back to normal, but we’re not there yet.
“I think we gradually get back to it. We all need to stay aware of what’s going on and stay safe.”
Both Taylor and Ryan said the past couple of months have been “very slow” since the concern for spread of coronavirus ratcheted up and other businesses began to close as a result of the governor’s orders beginning in mid-March.
Ryan said his Honda location is down roughly half of what its sales were at this point a year ago while the Chevy lot has seen a slight uptick in transactions in the first four full months in 2020. Taylor said his lots haven’t moved much inventory since March, but he spent the last 60 days buying more vehicles at great prices that should provide consumers with appealing deals.
There’ll likely be some pent-up demand for new and used vehicles, but both men expect business to grow gradually over the coming weeks and months.
“People are anticipating good buys. We don’t think there’ll be a boom by any means, but it’ll be better,” Taylor said. “We know our customers will come back gradually. We can wait and we’ll sit here like we have for the 50 years we have.”
General Motors plants have been closed the last two months and will open up running half shifts. When dealerships place orders for new automobiles, it normally can take up to three months for them to arrive at the lot.
Due to that, Ryan said the Chevy locations will more than likely run out of inventory within the next two months.
“We’re going to run out of cars by June. There’s going to be a shortage. We’re not having a lot of fun right now, but we’ll be alright,” Ryan said. “We’re lucky that we’ve been around a long time. I have no doubt we’ll make it through this.”
One thing Ryan expects to remain after the pandemic is how car dealerships have navigated the uncertainty when it comes to cleanliness and other precautionary measures those in their industry have implemented.
“Our cars are our own personal, clean space. It’s going to be a totally different, new normal. We sanitize cares when they come in for service,” Ryan said. “I think customers are kinda freaked out, but I believe they’ll feel better when they see us take the extra steps to keep them safe. It’s going to be a weird, new normal.”
(Story continues below.)
Read the latest Louisiana reopening news:
- Gov. John Bel Edwards on masks: Those who don't wear them asking for trouble
- Sterlington Board OKs 2% sales tax on convenience stores and restaurants
- Despite reopening some patients still likely avoiding ER due to COVID-19
Before the coronavirus scare, the way consumers shopped for new and used cars had already began to change. Many turned to the internet to peruse local lots’ inventory to identify a potential vehicle they wanted and would begin the process that way before going to the location.
For the customers that still value a test drive before purchasing, Taylor wants them to know that each vehicle is completely sanitized after an employee or customer enters the car or truck at any time.
Both Taylor and Ryan anticipate more people will initially go online to shop. Car lots have gone one step in further in delivering new cars to customers among other safe, non-contact ways to sell.
Whether it’s from the comfort and safety of their own home or in person at the dealership, Taylor said there’s never been a better time to buy a new or used car. But in the end, he still advises the consumer to do their homework and take their time.
“It’s a good time to shop but look carefully. Be sure you get what you want,” Taylor said. “A car is a big investment even with the rates and prices where they currently are. Take your time to shop and get yourself something that’ll make you happy.”
What to expect
- Costumer safety is a top priority. From masks, to sanitized vehicles to non-contact on-site, the car buying experience will be much different for consumers.
- Financing options for customers with good credit could fall as low as 3 percent.
- Appointments via online or over the phone are more encouraged as it helps dealerships regulate how many people are inside the facilities.
- Wait times to work with a dealer potentially could get longer as locations have not yet welcomed back all employees to adhere to guidelines provided by the Center for Disease Control.


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America’s largest industrial conglomerate ought to be a fairly reliable barometer for the economy and stock market. But General Electric Co. looks more like a contrarian indicator. Its robust fourth quarter results vindicate boss Jeff Immelt’s reshuffling of the portfolio to focus on businesses that can outpace the US economy. With a fat order book and a triple-A credit rating, GE looks all set to outperform the market. After the US market’s worst three-day plunge in five years, investors in equities were desperate for some good news. GE obliged. The maker of turbines and light bulbs delivered 17% earnings growth in the fourth quarter and reaffirmed its guidance for at least 10% growth this year.
It looks like Immelt’s $100 billion (Rs39,300 crore) frenzy of deal-making since taking the helm in 2001 is finally be paying off. By focusing on faster-growing businesses and emphasizing overseas opportunities, GE hopes to expand its revenue at two-three times the rate of US gross domestic product growth. It may do even better. While the economy flirts with recession, GE expects 10-15% revenue growth this year, thanks in part to a $44 billion order backlog for infrastructure equipment in places such as China, India and Latin America. Of course, things look less rosy on the home front. GE’s forecast calls for a 20% drop in earnings at its financial arm, GE Money, and delinquencies in the US are on the rise. Still, GE has managed risks better than its competitors, avoiding collateralized debt obligation exposure and jettisoning its subprime mortgage business last summer.
What’s more, GE may soon be in a position to scoop up distressed portfolios for a song, a tactic that worked to its advantage in previous credit crunches. GE shares rose more than 4% after its announcement, but there may be more room to run. At $34, it is selling for just 14 times estimated earnings, a discount to the S&P 500. The company also raised its dividend 11% and announced a $15 billion share buy-back plan. Considering the outlook for the rest of the market, GE should command a premium.


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The Squad solar electric city car is launching in the US, and it starts at $6,250. Is it just a golf cart or actually a new and useful product?
Squad Mobility is a Dutch startup founded by Robert Hoevers and Chris Klok, two former employees of Lightyear, which is also working on a solar electric car – though a full-size one.
We reported on the company earlier this year when it launched the Squad solar electric car in Europe for €6,250.
The small two-seater vehicle is designed to be lightweight and efficient. With its small wheels, it doesn’t take much to move it around, resulting in the relatively small solar panel on top with up to 31 km (19.2 miles) of range on a sunny day.
As for the powertrain, it consists of two 2 kW rear in-wheel motors powering four 1.6 kWh battery packs that are rapidly swappable. The electric city car can travel up to 100 km (62 miles) on a single charge with all four battery packs, and it can reach a top speed of 45 km/h (28 mph).
Today, Squad Mobility confirmed that the Squad solar city car is coming to the US for $6,250 and will debut at CES in Las Vegas.
Robert Hoevers commented on the US launch:
We are seeing a tremendous interest from the USA, specifically for markets such as sharing platforms, gated communities, campuses, (seaside) resorts, tourism, company terrains, hotels & resorts, amusement parks, and inner-city services.
In the US, what Squad Mobility is calling “the world’s first solar city car” will be considered an LSV (low-speed vehicle) – much like a golf cart, even though it is more capable than that.
For its small footprint, the vehicle is surprisingly utilitarian with space for a laptop on the dashboard, a small trunk, and a foldable passenger seat:
You can easily fit a stroller or a golf bag on the folded seat.
For cities where it will be allowed as an LSV, the Squad is going quite easy to park since it is so small that it can even park perpendicular to the street
And if the parking spot is not in the shade, the vehicle will charge itself with its solar panel on top.
While Squad will likely find private customers who would want the solar electric city car for $6,250, the company appears to be primarily going after sharing market here with a vision of fleets being deployed in cities with battery swap stations.
Hoevers said that the company will use the US debut at CES next month to find US partners to help make that vision happen.
What do you think about the Squad solar electric city car? It looks great for city usage but also beach and senior communities too. And heck I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of these on the golf course as well! Let us know in the comments section below.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.


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Hotel investors are enjoying increased business and leisure travel plus a shallow construction pipeline, a combination that's boosted occupancies across the nation. But are the seeds of another downturn being planted as developers scramble to meet occupancy demand with a flurry of new projects? PricewaterhouseCoopers projects that the number of new hotel rooms under construction will reach 120,000 this year, up from 82,100 in 2005, a whopping 46% increase.
To some lodging economists, this new supply won't become a headache until mid-2008, when many of these new rooms open. Cap rates have fallen significantly from 11.3% in December 2001 to 8.4% as of last fall, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. High demand and limited supply typically drive cap rates down, but a flood of new rooms could dilute occupancy and investor appetite to buy hotels.
“When the cap rates go down and the cranes go up, that's usually a recipe for trouble,” says Morris Lasky, CEO of Chicago-based hotel management and consulting firm Lodging Unlimited. The 30-year lodging industry veteran has encountered this situation before.
Others share Lasky's insights. Jan Freitag, vice president at Smith Travel Research based in Hendersonville, Tenn., indicates that hotel sources are voicing concerns about a supply glut. Some are even using the catchphrase “fine until 2009” to describe the next few years, says Freitag. The researcher indicates that the amount of planned development would be much larger, if it weren't for steep construction costs.
“The cost of land and materials has been so high in recent years that developers haven't built too many hotels, but many of them really want to catch this market now,” says Freitag.
The cost of plastic construction products jumped 21.8% during the 12-month period ending in February with much of that increase stemming from high oil prices. Many plastic products are oil-based. Reed Construction Data also reports that the cost of ready-mix concrete, which is used to pour the foundations of new hotels, increased 11.1% during the same period.
Even so, rising occupancies and room rates are driving a new wave of construction. The national occupancy rate increased by 290 basis points in 2005, reaching 63.1% by year's end. During the hotel market's last peak year of 2000, occupancy climbed as high as 63.3% before taking a nosedive in 2001. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased 8.4% in 2005. That was the largest annual RevPAR gain in 22 years, reports Smith Travel.
Investors have demonstrated an insatiable appetite for hotels. Hotel transactions totaled $21 billion in 2005, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, well above the $12.9 billion in total deals during 2004. Condo converters, who are famous for bidding up prices, acquired many of those properties.
Aside from driving down cap rates, conversion activity has also dampened the existing supply of hotels in recent years. “We did $1.7 billion in hotel transactions last year,” says Art Buser, managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. “There was a residential converter interested in every single one of those deals, too.”
In one of the biggest deals so far this year, Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. bought San Francisco's Westin St. Francis hotel from an affiliate of Blackstone Group for $440 million, or roughly $440,000 per key. Blackstone, which acquired the hotel six years ago for $230 million, fetched a handsome return on the deal.
Buser of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels believes that investor demand will remain strong over the next few years because most hotels continue to trade below replacement cost.
“If you can buy existing hotels under replacement cost, you have to wonder how building something new makes sense. It just has to be a better mousetrap, and that's not totally realistic,” says Buser, who believes that the prohibitive cost of new construction and labor will limit the amount of new projects.


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A Look Back
By: Dr. M. Ray Perryman
Published in syndication December 28, 2022
This past year has been a wild ride - full of peaks and valleys, with good news, bad news, and not a lot of calm and predictable in between. Let's take a quick look back at 2022 and its implications for the economy and its future performance
One of the most promising developments of the year is that the numbers of serious COVID-19 cases finally dropped to levels sufficiently low for us to resume most normal activity. Back in January, the United States was in the midst of a surge with cases averaging about 800,000 per day, compared to fewer than 70,000 now. While there is always the risk of another wave of serious cases, 2022 saw notable improvement. As the economy has continued to reopen, we've seen the addition of nearly 400,000 jobs per month. Although not as rapid as 2021 during the early stages of recovery, it is nonetheless very strong growth which sets the stage for future expansion even in the face of near-term headwinds.
However, fallout from the pandemic and related disruptions linger. The phrase "supply chain" wasn't one most people thought much (if any) about before the pandemic, but now it's part of our everyday language. The intricate system of production and logistics took a major hit during the shutdowns, and snarls akin to global traffic jams rapidly developed. The result was factories without key parts, ships backed up at ports, shortages and empty shelves, and similar problems. The past year has seen products flowing more smoothly from manufacturers to customers. Disruptions to the supply chain cause inefficiencies and slow potential growth. Many companies are taking action to insulate themselves from potential future calamities.
We are finally seeing signs of inflation beginning to ease, although it's taken unprecedented interest rate hikes to get there. A variety of factors contributed to price escalation at historic rates. Trillions in stimulus money and the aforementioned supply-chain-related shortages led to too much money chasing too few goods. Inflation has been hard on families, businesses, and public entities. The Federal Reserve has shown resolve in raising interest rates to slow the economy, with the magnitude of the adjustments beginning to diminish; the challenge will be doing so without causing a recession. I remain optimistic that a major downturn can be avoided.
On the international front, we've seen a war in Ukraine and increasing tensions in other areas as well as ongoing shutdowns in China. If any of these situations dramatically escalate, the economy will respond.
The US economy displayed remarkable resilience in 2022. Difficulties remain, but the progress of the past year has been substantial. Let's hope 2023 brings only a modest slowdown, followed by further improvements. Happy New Year!


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State of the Region 2012: Growth planned despite economic fears
YORKSHIRE business leaders are set to embark on expansion plans in 2012 despite their confidence being shaken by economic conditions which they predict are set to get worse.
And despite fears of issues in the eurozone continuing to affect performance, many businesses are looking to forge ahead and target new markets and clients as well as make acquisitions over the next 12 months.
These are some of the key findings in TheBusinessDesk.com’s State of the Region survey, which has been completed by hundreds of business leaders.
The survey, compliled with support from lead sponsor DLA Piper, and supported by PwC and the CBI, paints a comprehensive picture of business sentiment across TheBusinessDesk.com’s heartlands of Yorkshire, the North West and West Midlands.
It is the third year the survey has been run by TheBusinessDesk.com and all this week we will be assessing the results.
In Yorkshire, 58% of respondents expect their business’s turnover to grow over the next 12 months, almost half (47%) expect to maintain the number of staff employed, while 30% highlighted acquisitions as the most likely transactional activity they will be involved in.
Despite many commentators anticipating that international markets offer the best opportunities for growth, 71% of respondents see regional and national markets as better suited to their needs.
Demand for goods and services is seen as the biggest challenge faced by businesses, but those surveyed said the impact of public spending cuts will be the biggest challenge for the Yorkshire region going forward.
More than two-thirds (69%) said the introduction of enterprise zones are good for the overall growth of the region but 60% said it was too early to tell if local enterprise partnerships were having a positive impact.
Almost half (47%) said they were less confident about the state of the UK economy than 12 months ago and the same percentage believe economic conditions will get worse.
Access to finance is the issue that needs to be addressed most urgently to drive further growth, although 60% of respondents expect bank lending for businesses to remain the same.
Do you agree with the findings? Please leave your comments below
Sarah Day, managing partner at DLA Piper in Leeds, said the findings showed that the ongoing economic strain appeared to be taking its toll on Yorkshire businesses.
Ms Day said: “The general pessimism is enhanced by the concern that we have not yet begun to feel the effects of the austerity policies implemented by the Government whilst any benefits from the Government’s planned credit easing scheme are unlikely to filter out until 2013.
“This leads to a nervousness even amongst those companies continuing to do well, of which there are a good number, as to what the year will bring.”
However, Ms Day said that Yorkshire, as one of the largest economies in the UK, had the foundations from which to build growth and confidence and said plans for turnover growth growth from the majority of businesses surveyed was a positive sign.
“This demonstrates the determination that continues to resonate throughout our business community and the appetite that exists to make the most of the opportunities that adversity can often bring.”
Steve Denison, PwC’s Northern Chairman in Leeds, said: “When it comes to forecasting turnover for the year ahead, there is a noticeable air of confidence in the poll findings and this is good to find at the heart of the region’s entrepreneurial business community.
“It is particularly encouraging to see that a significant number of businesses are expecting to take on staff in the year ahead, which would help to improve overall business confidence in the region.”
Comment: Yorkshire can defy the gloom
Tomorrow: About your business


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CHICAGO — Cook County’s sheriff filed a lawsuit Thursday against Craigslist, saying the popular online classifieds site not only allows the solicitation of prostitution but has actively created “the largest source of prostitution in America.”
“They’ve actually catered their site so it facilitates (prostitution), where you can actually and more specifically and quickly get to what you want,” said Sheriff Tom Dart at a news conference announcing the federal lawsuit.
“How is that different than somebody who’s aggressively and actively working with a pimp to try to get the word out about the women working for him?” he said.
Craigslist spokeswoman Susan Best said that although the company had not seen the lawsuit, it vehemently disputes the sheriff’s contentions. The company cooperates with law enforcement, has taken several steps to prevent illegal use of the site and pulls inappropriate ads, she added.
“Misuse of Craigslist to facilitate criminal activity is unacceptable, and we continue to work diligently to prevent it,” Best said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
But Dart said Craigslist has refused over the last two years to prevent people from posting the ads that pop up by the thousands in its “Erotic Services” section.
He acknowledged the company does warn that solicitation of prostitution is prohibited, but said it ignores obviously illegal ads.
“None of these ads require any imagination, there’s no mystery,” Dart said, pointing to ads with phrases such as “Teens for cash … $100 quickie,” and “Ask me about my 2 girl specials.”
Dart brought to the press conference a 19-year-old woman who he said turned to prostitution — and was recently arrested for allegedly soliciting an undercover officer — after originally going to the site in search of modeling jobs.
Craigslist has created a public nuisance and is in violation of city, county, state and federal prohibitions, Dart says in the lawsuit. He asks that a federal judge shut the “Erotic Services” section down.
Like other sites, Craigslist, which allows users to post classified ads and other items, generally doesn’t check the postings or remove them unless it receives complaints. Federal law offers broad immunity to service providers for content posted by users, as long as they respond to specific complaints.
The previous lawsuits failed because the defendants’ only role was allowing ads, Dart said. In contrast, he argued, the purpose of the “Erotic Services” is to facilitate prostitution.
“They are not passive,” Dart said. “They are actively involved with this.”
Further, he said his own officers’ experience — in which they posed as minors seeking sex — demonstrates that Craigslist does not look very hard for illegal activity.
“We put up … one saying 14-year-old looking for sex,” he said. “That ad wasn’t taken down. It sat out there until we took it down.”
There have been several arrests around the nation that stemmed from “Erotic Services” ads posted on Craigslist.
In New York, federal prosecutors charged a New York man in November with being a violent pimp and alleged he advertised the services of girls and women between the ages of 15 and 20. And in January, two Wisconsin women were charged with misdemeanor prostitution after allegedly offering sex for money on Craigslist.
Craigslist reached an agreement in November with attorneys general in Connecticut, Illinois and several other states that called for the company to crack down on prostitution ads. The Connecticut attorney general’s office had contacted the site after receiving several complaints about photographs depicting nudity.
Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist’s CEO, said at the time that the agreement would allow legitimate escort services to continue advertising while discouraging illegal activity by requiring anyone posting “Erotic Services” ads to provide a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card.
Craigslist also agreed to provide that information to law enforcement if subpoenaed.
At the time, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who brokered the agreement, said Craigslist cooperated fully.
Also in November, Craigslist filed lawsuits against more than a dozen software and Internet companies that help people who post erotic service ads to circumvent the Web site’s defenses against inappropriate content and illegal activity.
On Thursday, Best pointed to that agreement as evidence of Craigslist’s diligence.
But the lawsuit has prompted Blumenthal to evaluate the agreement.
“If my office determines these measures have failed to stop prostitution and human trafficking, I will seek much stronger safeguards and consider other steps,” he said in a statement, adding that Craigslist is cooperating.


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iOS and Android Messenger app gets update – Facebook’s standalone mobile Messenger app got an update today so users can now see whether their messages were received and more quickly see the location from which a message was sent. Image via Techcrunch
Facebook Messenger for iPad, video chat for iPhone in development – 9to5Mac says a source provided the site with access to an upcoming Facebook Messenger app for iPad and a version of the iPhone app with video chat features.
Facebook introduces Open Rack – Facebook introduced a new open source server design Wednesday called Open Rack. Part of the company’s “Open Compute Project,” Open Rack is meant to increase efficiency in Facebook’s data centers, the entire design of which is open sourced so others can model after it or improve upon it.
Facebook joins GNI with unique status – Facebook has joined the Global Network Initiative as an observer, Fast Company reports. The GNI is a consortium of institutions that monitor Internet firms on issues of free speech and human rights. As an “observer,” the company does not have to submit to auditing. It is the first company to have this special status.
Facebook’s first buy rating – Facebook saw its first buy rating from Wedbush Securities Inc. this week, with a target price of $44. That’s well above the $28 to $35 range Facebook set earlier this week.
Like button is not protected speech – A federal judge in Virginia ruled this week that Liking something on Facebook was not tantamount to speech protected under the First Amendment.
FBI lobbying for Facebook backdoor – Wired reports that the FBI has been lobbying Facebook, as well as other companies like Yahoo and Google, to give them backdoor government access to their platforms for wiretapping.
Googles Ordr.in launches Timeline integration – Google Ventures’ Ordr.in became the first restaurant commerce app to integrate Facebook Open Graph. Users of the app can order from a restaurant and share their activity to Facebook timeline using the new actions “crave” and “eat.”
U.K. bouncers identifying patrons via Facebook – Bouncers in some U.K. bars are asking patrons for their smartphones to compare IDs to Facebook profiles in order to guard against fake IDs.
Roadwire wins Facebook Small Business Boost contest – Roadwire, an automotive aftermarket manufacturer and distributor based in Austin, Texas, won the Facebook Small Business Boost contest that rewarded companies that added the most new fans in a given period. Roadwire added over 125,000 fans in less than three months, and earned $10,000 in Facebook advertising as a prize.


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Michael Jordan and his brand pledge $100 million to Black Lives Matter
June 8, 2020 6:47AM CDT
WOW. Now THAT’S impressive. See their statement below!
Be a part of the change. #JUMPMAN pic.twitter.com/wtxsv7Jhwg
— Jordan (@Jumpman23) May 29, 2020
Joint Statement from Michael Jordan & Jordan Brand regarding $100m donation. pic.twitter.com/yYXWh5eBZl
— Estee Portnoy (@esteep) June 5, 2020


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The news comes via Automotive News, who are quoting Dan Akerson, GM CEO, as saying that the move is part of an overall strategy to make Cadillac a truly global brand. Right now, vehicles are manufactured only in U.S. and Mexican facilities, despite the fact that the models are sold globally.
Akerson said the move to production elsewhere on the globe would help protect Cadillac from fluctuations of the dollar against and help the company improve its supply chain.
No indication (or even a hint) was given as to where the production facilities would be located, but the most likely candidate should be China, due to the cheaper labour force and the ever-growing market there.
"We're going to try to define a slightly different brand and product strategy by having a global premium brand, Cadillac, and a global value brand, Chevrolet," Akerson told reporters before GM's annual shareholders meeting.
The GM CEO also said he wants to make Cadillac a global luxury brand, just as Chevrolet is its current global brand. However, it will take some time before the Americans can match the success that Toyota has had with Lexus. A true global brand would also need to have a diverse portfolio, a strong presence and a big share of its segments in the countries it does business in.


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Free parking for Christmas
Shoppers to get two free hours per visit
Enniscorthy Municipal District Council is to introduce free, two-hour parking in the town in the run up to Christmas.
The measure will be implemented on Saturdays beginning on Saturday, November 30.
The free parking scheme will be also be in place on Saturday, December 7, 14 and 21.
There will be additional free, two-hour parking implemented on Monday, December 23 and Tuesday, December 24.
In presenting the idea to the members of the local authority at this month's meeting, District Manager, Ger Mackey, said the town has a strong commercial offering.
He also said the importance of good Christmas trade should not be underestimated.
'Retailers are under constant pressure from online,' he said.
'I am suggesting two hours free parking in the town's car parks on the three Saturdays in December,' he added.
'That would amount to 4,000 free car spaces for shoppers.'
In response to the suggestion Cllr Jackers Owens said everything should be done to get people shopping in the town and highlighted that shops were closing in the town.
'Enniscorthy has value and variety,' said Mr Mackey.
'It is a strong town [and] we need to protect what we have here,' he added.
Cllr Cathal Byrne said the idea for free parking was a good one and welcomed it.
'I am happy to propose two hours free parking in all car parks on Saturdays in December,' he said.
'This will be first trading Christmas since the by-pass opened and that has taken 6,600 cars out of the town,' he added.
Cllr Byrne went on to comment: 'People have said to me that chose not to shop here because of the difficulty with traffic, but I hope that problem is now gone and if you can park for free that should help as well.'
Cllr Jackser Owens then seconded Cllr Byrne's proposal.


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Uber Technologies Inc. is an American transportation network company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It develops, markets and operates the Uber mobile app, which allows consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request, which is then routed to Uber drivers who use their own cars.
Since entering Russia in 2013 with just a few cars signed up to its service, Uber has expanded rapidly. In April 2016, it entered two new Russian cities, Ufa and Nizhny Novgorod, taking the total to 10. It aims to cover about 40 major Russian cities in the near future. There are two main competitors of Uber on the Russian online-aggregators market – Gett and Yandex.Taxi.
Since entering the Russian market, Uber has generated heated discussion among all those involved, in particular between taxi drivers, the Government of the Russian Federation and regulatory authorities. In this article, we consider the legal consequences of Uber’s entrance to the taxi transportation market in Russia, and discuss what position the antimonopoly authorities took in relation to the respective market and its participants.
Complaints from the taxi drivers
In July 2015, the Federation of Russian Car Owners (hereinafter – the FAR) filed a complaint on behalf of taxi drivers to the General Prosecutor, the Public Chamber, and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (hereinafter – the FAS) with the request to check the activities of the online-aggregators operating in the taxi transportation market: Uber, Gett and Yandex.Taxi.
The FAR’s representatives accused the companies for abuse of dominant position by decreasing prices and monopolizing the taxi transportation market. Moreover, they stated that Uber, Gett and Yandex.Taxi created illegal competition on the market. It was indicated that the companies have no cars of their own and do not hire drivers, but sign partner agreements with companies that provide cars under taxi lease contracts. It is the FAR’s opinion that these actions allow the companies to set monopolistically low prices. They also mentioned that such pricing tactics require other taxi market participants (i.e. taxi drivers) to adopt unprofitable pricing in order to compete with Uber, Gett and Yandex.Taxi.
The FAS started an investigation and sent requests for information to the companies in order to understand the structure of the market. In October 2015, the FAS indicated that they do not consider that Uber, Gett and Yandex.Taxi occupy a dominant position in the transport market. The FAS’s representative declared that the companies’ main type of business activity is the collection and transfer of information between users of taxi services and carriers.
The FAR’s representatives did not agree with the decision of the FAS and filed a complaint to the Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, over the low prices dictated by taxi service aggregators and the FAS’s refusal to initiate an official case. Nevertheless, the position of the FAS in respect to market definition did not change even after this appeal to the Prime Minister.
Tariffs for the online-aggregators
In April 2016, the Ministry of Transport made amendments to the bill On state regulation of taxi transportation, wherein the Ministry intended to oblige the online-aggregators (i.e. Uber, Gett, and Yandex.Taxi) to negotiate the tariffs with the taxi carriers.
The Head of the FAS, Igor Artemiev, did not support these amendments and indicated that such actions could be considered to be an anticompetitive horizontal agreement (cartel), the conclusion of which could result in the restriction of competition on the taxi transportation market.
Igor Artemiev also noted that the competition law not only prohibits the authorities from creating a cartel, but also from coordinating the attempts of such illegal actions.
Licenses for the taxi drivers
In February 2016, the Moscow transportation department threatened to ban Uber unless the company agreed to special terms established by the collaboration agreement.
The agreement has two main provisions. One is that Uber agrees to work only with licensed taxi drivers who have a state permit to drive a taxicab. The second is that the agreement obliges Uber to share their car movement data with the city’s transportation authorities.
In March 2016, Uber pledged to only hire Moscow drivers with commercial taxi licenses and to share aggregated data on travel routes with city authorities.
The data on Uber cars and their movements around the city is supposed to be passed on to the Moscow city government’s traffic organization center, which the transportation officials believe will improve the work of the city’s new intelligent transportation system. This system pools data from the municipal transportation networks and monitors traffic in real time.
Similar agreements had been signed earlier with taxi services Gett and Yandex.Taxi.
Despite the heated discussion that appeared after Uber entered the Russian market in 2013, we cannot ignore the positive impact of the online-aggregators (i.e. Uber, Gett, and Yandex.Taxi) on the Russian taxi market.
Moreover, it cannot be denied that the FAS supports the online-aggregators by promoting the benefits of innovation and competition.
What is clear is that the on-demand ride market facilitated the driving down of prices on the whole taxi market that certainly had a good impact upon end consumers.
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Tower Records goes on the block again / Record store chain had recently exited bankruptcy status
Published 4:00 am, Saturday, February 25, 2006
Two years after emerging from bankruptcy protection, Tower Records is reportedly up for sale again.
Tower tried seeking a buyer in 2003 and 2004, but was unable to complete a deal.
The new attempt comes as no surprise. It's always been anticipated that Tower's bondholders, who took control of the company during its bankruptcy case, would eventually want to sell.
Tower and Houlihan Lokey officials couldn't be reached for comment. One of the bondholders, the Los Angeles investment firm MW Post Advisory Group, declined to comment. Others couldn't be reached.
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Tower, once a stunning success story, got clobbered by discounters, Internet sellers and the digital downloading phenomenon on the Internet.
The market research firm Nielsen SoundScan said CD sales dropped 7 percent last year and have fallen 21 percent since 2000. Musicland was the latest big retailer to file for bankruptcy and has just been taken over by Trans World Entertainment, which owns the FYE chain.
The industry "is beyond struggling," said Barry Sosnick, an industry consultant.
For a while after Tower left bankruptcy, it had appeared that the music business was rebounding. But the retail industry continues to struggle in the iPod era and went into another tailspin late last year. Holiday sales were down 12.5 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Sosnick, head of a consulting firm called Earful.info, said music retailers are hurting because consumers are shifting their dollars toward DVDs and video games. Tower sells those products, but they carry lower profit margins than music, he said.
For years, Tower was an icon of music retailing. In the late 1990s, it spanned the globe and generated more than $1 billion in annual sales. But its crumbling finances forced it to sell its profitable Japanese stores and leave other international markets. Its remaining overseas stores are franchises.
The company operates about 90 stores in the United States.


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HTC One Max Yet Another Leaked Image Before Launch
We notified you about the HTC One Max a few days back with some not so clear images. Now here is a new press render image for the HTC One Max, this gives us an idea of what the phone actually looks like.
Famous tipster evleaks posted what’s reportedly a “non-final” press image of the giant smartphone. The only major changes are the camera flash position and the limited edges all thanks to the big screen. .
Although the image cannot not show what is inside the phone, like the rumored snapdragon 800 processor and the big battery. However, this can be another device that might launch at IFA next month.


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We've reported extensively on the worldwide solar panel glut which is threatening many leading solar manufacturers.
That glut was at least in part caused by China's extensive incentives which made it easy for new solar companies to start-up and rapidly expand manufacturing capacity way beyond what the market demanded.
Combined, the country's 10 largest solar makers doubled production capacity last year, resulting in plummeting solar prices, down 47% to $0.94 a watt, according to Bloomberg Energy Finance.
Now, Chinese solar-panel makers, facing their own problems because of the over-supply, say they'd rather shut their factories, or even their entire businesses, rather than merge or be acquired, Zhang Longgen, CFO for JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS) told Reuters. It's against Chinese culture to be acquired, he said.
"The weakest companies should "weed out" about 75% of output capacity so that China has a "reasonable" 20 gigawatts compared with 75 gigawatts estimated by the second quarter of 2013," he says.
China's Energy Research Institute predicts the country will be down to 15 domestic solar manufacturers within five years.
Longgen believes the likeliest Chinese survivors will be state-owned companies and those whose shares trade on China's stock exchanges, noting they have enough capital to get through the hard times. They can temporarily shut factories and then open them again when the market recovers, he told Reuters.
He expects solar demand to drop another 10-20% in Q1 2012 from the last quarter of 2011, which would actually be a good thing because it will weed out the weakest companies.
Thus far, casualties in other parts of the world include now infamous Solyndra, based in the US, and Solon in Germany, and many of the leaders such as Germany's Solarworld and Q-Cells
are reported deep losses.
Those deep losses spurred SolarWorld's US operation to form a coalition that's been pursuing a trade complaint against China and is seeking tariffs on solar imports.
Learn more about which solar companies are expected to survive here and here:


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The Apprentice tycoon Lord Sugar yesterday launched YouView, which aims to transform viewing.
His new set-top box, part-funded by Channel 5, is out in a couple of weeks and gives access to thousands of hours of programmes on-demand across 70 channels, including The X Factor and Big Brother.
Viewers will also be able to pause and rewind live HD telly to make a cuppa.
But the key thing is price, as it will be subscription-free, unlike Sky and Virgin.
Lord Sugar, 65, said: “My audience is the Freeview audience that don’t want to be tied to a subscription. They only need this box. My ambition is that this replaces the Freeview box.”
YouView lets you scroll backwards on the telly guide and watch something from the previous seven days from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
A YouView box will cost £299 and you can either buy your box outright from stores or sign up to partners BT or TalkTalk as part of a wider subsidised broadband package.
It will hit shelves just ahead of the launch of the London 2012 Olympics at the end of the month.


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SHANGHAI--Mazda design has gone through a lot of churn and burn in search of a look in recent years, but global design chief Ikuo Maeda pledges continuity under his watch.
Maeda, 51, says the Kodo design language, which will debut in the CX-5 crossover, will filter through the lineup in the coming years. Kodo is Japanese for "soul of motion."
Key elements include a toned-down grille with a stylized Mazda flying wing contour extending under the grille and over the headlamps. Maeda calls that styling cue the signature wing; it is meant to echo the wavy M in the Mazda logo.
The new look also includes what Maeda dubs "rear-loading," a kind of bunched-up-in-the-back look meant to convey a more dense, muscular form.
"It looks like an animal ready to pounce," Maeda said at the Shanghai auto show.
For years, Mazda had hyped the fluid, wavelike Nagare design language. But Nagare, which means "flow" in Japanese, appeared in only one production vehicle, the Mazda5 minivan, and only after Nagare's champion, former Mazda design chief Laurens van den Acker, left the company for Renault.
When Maeda took over in 2009, it didn't take him long to shift gears.
He is jettisoning Nagare's rippled surface treatment as well as the broad smiley-face grilles introduced by van den Acker in cars such as the Mazda3.
Future versions of sedans will also have rear-loading with a shorter back deck, Maeda said.
The CX-5, based on the Minagi concept, will be the first showcasing Maeda's ideas. The CX-5 will debut in September at the Frankfurt auto show and go on sale in the United States next year.
"I want to overhaul the entire lineup this way. It will take more than three years," Maeda said. "It will take a long time, but that's what we'll do. And Kodo will evolve over time."
Maeda has ties to Mazda that likely will keep him in place longer than van den Acker.
He is a career Mazda man--and a second-generation one at that. Maeda designed the bold, muscular silhouette of today's RX-8 sports car. But a generation earlier, his father--also a Mazda stylist--designed the RX-8's spiritual ancestor, the original RX-7.


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Consumers are using smart speakers more than mobile phones for voice-assistant activities, according to a new study.
The majority (65%) of consumers use a standalone smart speaker while cooking, compared to 37% using mobile for voice assistance, according to the study, comprising a nationally representative survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by PwC.
Consumers use their smart speaker while multitasking 62%), while watching TV (57%), when in bed (38%) and while working (29%).
Usage of voice technologies also varies by age, according to the survey. Heaviest usage is by those 25 to 49 years old (65%), followed by those 18 to 24 (59%) and those over 50 (57%).
Almost all (93%) consumers are satisfied with their voice assistants. However, voice assistants on smartphones have the lowest consumer satisfaction rate.
Voice assistants help people feel organized (50%), informed (45%), happy (37%), smart (35%), confident (31%) and free (30%), according to the PwC study. Almost all (90%) consumers are familiar with voice-enabled products and devices.


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A photography archive owned by Bill Gates which includes sensitive images of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown has been sold to a Chinese company.
Among the pictures that were previously controlled by Corbis which are now owned by Visual China Group is one of ‘Tank Man” the unidentified protester who stood in front of row of tanks during demonstrations in central Beijing.
Other images which defined the 20th century that are to change hands include Marylyn Monroe standing on a subway grate and workers eating lunch on a steel girder atop Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center.
Observers are not expecting any change in access to the huge collection, and VCG have also signed a deal with Getty to distribute its images outside of China.
Images and discussion surrounding the crushing of demonstrators in central Beijing in 1989 are censored within China.
Craig Peters, Getty’s senior vice president for business development, told The New York Times the company would uphold its “discretion” on what is produced via a partnership with VGC that has existed for more than a decade.
“VGC has no limitations over what we produce or what we represent or what we bring to bear in our markets,” he said. “And that level of editorial discretion and integrity is something that we’ve maintained and is 100 percent absolutely intact.”
Corbis said in an online statement that during the selling process it sought an “excellent steward for its world-class archives and one that valued and appreciated its iconic library”.
Amy Jun Liang, Chief Executive Officer of VCG, said the company would “work to capture the evolving demand for visual communications around the world”.
The deal is the latest to involve Chinese interests taking control of established overseas media brands.
Last month e-commerce giant Alibaba Group purchased Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper.


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Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
On Valentine’s Day, the WhiteBox art gallery in New York City hosted a runway show with a political twist. The diverse group of models featured in “Illegal Fashion” wore dresses made of canvas, linen, burlap, and recycled paper. Painted with splotches of bold colors, the garments bore provocative phrases like “I am illegal,” “deport me,” and “ICE me.”
Artist Maria de Los Angeles curated the show with WhiteBox founder Juan Puntes. de Los Angeles also designed the dresses modeled. The 29-year-old has a personal connection to the garments, as well as to the messages painted on them.
“I’m undocumented,” she says. “So a lot of the show was about my identity. There is a large range of immigrant experiences. There are a lot of stereotypes, both negative and positive.”
“Illegal Fashion” not only aimed to shine a spotlight on the immigrant experience, but also to draw attention to the fact that the work of immigrants drives the fashion business. The Pew Research Center has found that the textile, apparel, and leather manufacturing industry is second only to private households in employing the greatest share of immigrants, with a 22 percent share of authorized and a 14 percent share of unauthorized immigrants. Accordingly, the nation’s immigration policies directly affect the apparel industry.
The Trump administration announced on September 5th that it would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The federal government implemented DACA in 2012 to give some undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children work authorization and a temporary deportation reprieve. Critics of a DACA repeal point to findings that ending the program could cost the nation $340 billion.
Congress members on both sides of the political aisle are trying to reach an agreement about the DREAM Act with President Trump. That legislation would allow DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrants to stay in the US. If the DREAM Act doesn’t pass and deportations of all undocumented people rise, apparel industry experts say the sector could be particularly hard-hit. In fact, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) argued well before the DACA announcement that the country’s convoluted immigration system is bad for business.
“Anyone who has ever set foot in New York or Los Angeles’ garment district knows that immigrants are the backbone of the fashion industry,” says Steven Kolb, CFDA’s president and CEO. “From seamstresses and photographers to pattern makers and tailors, we owe much of our success to the tireless work of those who came from other countries and brought with them creative ideas and an entrepreneurial spirit.”
In April, the CFDA and FWD.us, an immigrant advocacy group founded by tech innovators like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, released a report called “Designing an Immigration System that Works.” The report features feedback from more than 100 fashion industry professionals about how US immigration policy has affected the apparel sector. Sixty-four percent of those surveyed “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the instability of the immigration system has hurt their efforts to recruit foreign talent. The report concluded that an increase in deportations would serve to thin the fashion industry’s workforce.
“A lot of the designers come from different parts of the word,” says Leezia Dhalla, a FWD.us spokeswoman. “Diane von Furstenberg and Oscar de la Renta were not born in America, but they came and contributed. Our fashion industry thrives on immigration, on the talents of individuals from all over the world. It includes designers, stylists, tailors, and garment workers.”
Nejvi Bejko, 27, is a case in point. She works in Washington, DC, as a showroom stylist for MM.LaFleur, which sells women’s business attire. She has previously worked for watchmaker Shinola. But her career experiences would not be possible without DACA. At age 9, Bejko and her family left war-torn Albania and settled in Michigan without permission from the US government. She doesn’t remember much about her life in Albania, but she took an early interest in fashion.
“Fashion is the only thing I’ve wanted to do since I was young — from sketching outfits to being interested in putting clothes together,” she says.
When Bejko graduated from high school at 18, her options for school and work were limited. She managed to pay for classes at a community college, where she earned an associate’s degree, but could not put her knowledge to use because she didn’t have authorization to work in the United States. After the Obama administration introduced DACA, Bejko attended Michigan State University, where she studied apparel and textile design. She quickly discovered that she was not the only undocumented student in her program.
“I had a very good friend from Guatemala whose mom brought him over when he was a child,” Bejko says. “There were a lot of similarities.” Both she and her classmate, for example, could not receive financial aid and paid for their schooling on their own.
Bejko says her program also included international students from countries like China and Japan, forced to leave after graduation because they were in the country on student visas and could not get work authorization. International students in the US qualify for Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows them to work for up to a year in industries connected to their fields of study. Students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields qualify for an OPT extension of up to two years, but fashion design and fashion tech majors aren’t eligible. The “Designing an Immigration System that Works” report recommends that this change, as it argues that fashion designers are innovators, too. The report also suggests that the federal government increase the number of H-1B visas it offers, expand the definition of the O-1 visa, and provide visas for entrepreneurs.
The H-1B visa lets businesses employ workers in specialized fields for up to six years, but most companies that apply for these visas don’t receive them because just a select number are offered annually. To recruit foreign talent, the fashion industry also relies heavily on the O-1 visa, for individuals who excel in the sciences, arts, education, business, and sports. But FWD.us and the CFDA recommend that the government update the guidelines for this visa because the exhaustive paperwork required creates obstacles for applicants.
Retail analyst Robert Greenspan of Greenspan Consult Inc. in Los Angeles has observed the fallout from these policies.
“There used to be lots of international students going to design colleges and then hopefully getting a job here, but their numbers in fashion schools have dropped considerably from lack of jobs,” he says.
He adds that some of the apparel industry jobs largely performed by immigrants, like garment work, aren’t easy to fill.
“Those jobs aren’t easily replaced. Nobody wants to do that job. It’s not glamorous. It’s hard work,” he says. “How does it affect business if the people doing those jobs leave? I think that’s a problem. I don’t think there’s trained people to replace them.”
Forty-three percent of the fashion industry professionals surveyed for “Designing an Immigration System that Works” said that they could not hire the best job candidate because of problems with the visa system. Thirty-one percent said that the inability to hire a foreign worker actually hurt their business financially. Bejko says that she knows from personal experience how challenging it can be to retain quality employees.
“Even here at the showroom, it’s difficult to find people who are hardworking,” she says. “Our [immigration policies] are very detrimental to the the fashion industry.” She questions how the industry would sustain itself without the immigrants who make the products, sell the products, and pay billions of dollars in taxes annually.
de Los Angeles, a DACA recipient who settled in California from Mexico at age 11, agrees that eliminating the program is not in the best interest of the United States.
“It’s very unhelpful to the economy, which is what people don’t realize,” she says. Immigrants “are an economic force in different industries. The country is going to be losing out on people who have been well-educated and who are at a prime age for producing. I think it’s not a smart choice.”
As a child, de Los Angeles toiled on the California farmland with her family. But art always fascinated her. She pursued the subject at Santa Rosa Junior College, then the Pratt Institute in New York City and, from there, Yale University. She now teaches at Pratt and plans to continue using fashion in her artwork, a point of interest that has led her to team up with couture dressmakers and tailors. She has also consistently used her “wearable art,” as she calls her garments, to protest. Last October, she and 25 models marched to Trump Tower, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and down Fifth Avenue in dresses covered with political statements about the US immigration system.
“I really like my work to change depending on what context it’s exhibited in,” she says. “I like the relationship between sculpture, performance art, and fashion, and the many people who work in fashion. I don’t think the lives of the people in these industries crosses the minds of people who wear the clothing. It’s something to think about, to talk about labor but also in a fashion context.”
The union United Here represents workers in the textile, manufacturing, and distribution industry. According to Rachel Gumpert, the union’s national press secretary, many such workers are DACA recipients.
“There are still textile workers who actually make clothes in America,” Gumpert says. “They are being paid union wages and have a lot of say in their jobs. There are DACA recipients working full time, making a huge contribution to the economy, to the textile and garment-making industries. If they’re going to be leaving or basically criminalized overnight, they’re going to lose good union jobs with benefits.”
Because many DACA recipients also have parents who are undocumented but lack authorization to work in the US, ending the program may cause a ripple effect throughout immigrant communities, Gumpert says. Such parents rely on their children to earn a fair wage or provide health insurance for family members, she says.
Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute’s US Immigration Policy Program, says reversing DACA could force these young undocumented immigrants back into industries like food service, maintenance, or construction, where it’s easy to pay people under the table. Before DACA’s implementation, Bejko worked in restaurants, receiving cash wages. Gelatt says employers will suffer financially if they have to lay off their DACA workers and use their resources to find and train replacements for them.
“I think it’s kind of a loss for the employers, for the industry, and for the country,” Gelatt says. “That’s kind of a loss for us all.”
Gelatt points out that repealing DACA may also cause a brain drain of sorts since the program required a high school diploma (or equivalent), one to be currently enrolled in school, or honorably discharged from the military. DACA made college education possible for many unauthorized immigrants as well.
“It’s much less clear [with a DACA repeal] if young undocumented people are going to attend college at the same rate,” Gelatt says.
The Migration Policy Institute estimates that 20 percent of the DACA-eligible population is enrolled in college, the same percentage as the US population generally. It has also found that sales and related occupations (which includes retail) and production occupations (including dressmakers and textile and leather workers) are among the most common fields for both DACA-eligible and ineligible unauthorized immigrants.
“It’s very much different than what people think it is,” Bejko says of her work experiences as a DACA recipient. “There are plenty of people like me who have retail and management jobs.”
Not only do immigrants have a wide range of jobs in the fashion industry, they also create jobs for US citizens, Kolb says. Thanks to entrepreneurial immigrants, many Americans in the apparel industry have landed jobs in sales, marketing, photography, graphic design, production, and cosmetics, he says.
In Los Angeles, which has the largest garment district in the country, advocates for garment workers fear that rescinding DACA may worsen the problems of the fast-fashion industry. Over the past decade, garment workers in California have filed more than 300 claims for backpay for making Forever 21 clothing, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation. The Times also cited a 2016 US Department of Labor investigation of 77 LA garment factories. It found that workers received an average of $7 an hour for sewing clothes for Forever 21, Ross Dress for Less, and T.J. Maxx; the city’s minimum wage is $12.
With this in mind, Garment Worker Center director Marissa Nuncio calls the DACA repeal an attack on the immigrant community.
“It makes people more vulnerable,” she says. “People with undocumented status who work in the sweatshop industry face an increased amount of retaliation, wage theft, and poor working conditions. If folks are losing their eligibility to work, we know from experience they are more likely to be absorbed by workplaces that are less protective of their rights.”
Most of the workers the Garment Worker Center serves are over age 35 and therefore do not qualify for DACA, but Nuncio says that during the summer months she sees an increased number of teens performing garment work. “They’re usually recently arrived and sometimes have multiple family members in the factories.”
Attorney Jessie Kornberg, president and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Bet Tzedek Legal Services, describes sweatshop labor as “difficult” and “dangerous.” Her firm has represented exploited garment workers.
“Some can’t work fast enough to make $3 an hour and get desperate enough to file a wage claim, knowing their employer will almost certainly report them to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” she says. “This is what the DACA rescindment means: putting another 800,000 workers in a situation that our garment workers already find themselves in — abusive, exploitive, [depriving] them of their basic rights.”


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Total of $125,000 USD Awarded to Two Local Companies for Financial Technology Business Solutions
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Village Capital and Accion Venture Lab announced the winners of their program, Village Capital-Accion Venture Lab: FinTech Mexico 2015. The program partnered with the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, Pomona Impact, and United IT Consultants, Inc. to support entrepreneurs making financial services more affordable and accessible for Mexicans who lack access to traditional financial services (“underbanked”).
A total of $125,000 USD was awarded to the two winning companies, Credilikeme ($75,000) and BillPocket($50,000). The two companies were selected by the program’s 10 other participating companies, which ranked each other according to team, product, social impact, financial projections, and other criteria.
Credilikeme(Culiacán Rosales) is an online lending platform that uses Facebook to reach, analyze, and engage borrowers. BillPocket(Guadalajara, Mexico) facilitates payments for more than 5,500 Mexican merchants using their mobile points of sale.
Over the last three months, this group of 12 entrepreneurs total received business development training, and mentorship from nearly 150 investors, industry experts, policymakers, and top business leaders in Mexico. The participating ventures in the program aim to create 100 jobs, provide approximately 200,000 low-income Mexicans with greater access to financial services, and help the program participants raise up to $1.4 million USD in investment capital and demonstrate 250% revenue growth.
“Village Capital has partnered with Accion Venture Lab, MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, Pomona Impact, and United IT Consultants to help develop the entrepreneurial community in Mexico,” said Village Capital’s Executive Director, Ross Baird. “By supporting these great businesses in the program, we aim to build sustainable economic growth through financial inclusion, which will benefit local communities, entrepreneurs, and investors.”
Paul Breloff, Accion Venture Lab’s Managing Director, added: “Mexico has been a global leader in bringing to market innovative financial products, services, and technologies for lower income customers and small businesses. This accelerator program really brought together some of the best startups and players in the Mexico Fintech space, as cohort members, mentors, partners, and more. We’re excited for the entire cohort and are looking forward to following their growth.”


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Best Cannabis Stocks To Watch Under $3
Are top marijuana stocks on your radar after the FOMC meeting aided the overall market advance this week? Investors are now facing a high-volatility week as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates by 75 basis points. Many parts of the market rebounded after the announcement, in what some call a dead cat bounce. However, many analysts are predicting that the market will continue to fall. Investors are looking for strategies to profit from the market’s high volatility in the short term.
Active traders benefit from the market’s volatility when it comes to short-term investments. Many active traders utilize day trading and swing trading techniques to profit from market volatility. Marijuana penny stocks have a reputation for being exceedingly volatile in the cannabis sector. For those who are unfamiliar, penny stocks are any equities that trade for less than $5. Active traders profit on short-term momentum in cannabis stocks, which are considered higher-risk assets. Penny stocks offer the advantage of allowing investors to purchase greater holdings for a lower investment.
In addition, new efforts to establish federal marijuana legalization and banking legislation are already starting in 2022. This summer’s events might have a significant influence on how major marijuana companies move for the rest of the year. With possible gains in the cannabis industry, it may be time to keep an eye on several penny stocks. Let’s take a look at three of the best marijuana penny stocks in the United States for the third week of June.
[Read More] 3 Top Marijuana Stocks To Watch Halfway Through June
Best Marijuana Penny Stocks In June 2022
- Ascend Wellness Holdings, Inc. (OTC: AAWH)
- 4Front Ventures Corp. (OTC: FFNTF)
- Lowell Farms Inc. (OTC: LOWLF)
Ascend Wellness Holdings, Inc.
With operations in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, AWH is a vertically integrated cannabis company. AWH’s main business is to own and run cultivation facilities that generate award-winning strains and a carefully selected product range. In general, the business produces and sells Ozone-branded products. Flowers, pre-rolls, concentrates, vapes, edibles, and other cannabis-related things are among the company’s cannabis product categories. AWH has 17 retail outlets and sells to licensed cannabis retailers. Ascend Wellness agreed on May 11th to raise the purchase price of MedMen NY Inc., a subsidiary of MedMen Enterprises Inc. (OTC: MMNFF), from $73 million to $88 million, dependent on the start of adult-use sales at a MedMen NY facility.
In the first quarter of 2022, the company’s overall gross sales were $101.2 million, down 0.8 percent quarter over quarter but up 33.4 percent year over year. In addition, excluding intercompany wholesale goods sales, net revenue fell 3.8 percent quarter over quarter but increased 28.7 percent year over year to $85.1 million. The corporation lost $27.8 million in the first quarter of 2022, compared to $16.5 million in the previous quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for Ascend was $16.4 million, indicating a 19.2 percent margin. As of March 31, 2022, the company has $143.8 million in cash and cash equivalents and $89.9 million in net debt. After striking an exclusive agreement with Lowell Smokes, the company began distributing in Massachusetts and Michigan earlier this year. On April 12th, the company announced that starting next week, it will be one of seven New Jersey operators offering adult-use cannabis.
AAWH Stock Performance
AAWH stock closed on June 15th at $2.63 down 6.74% in the past five trading days. Currently, the stock has a price range of $2.46-$15.81 down 59.94% year to date. According to analysts at CNN Business AAWH stock has a 12-month median price forecast of $8.50 per share. In this case, this would represent an upside of 223.19% from its last trading price of $2.63.
[Read More] 3 Marijuana Stocks That May See A Turnaround In Trading This Month
4Front Ventures Corp.
4Front Ventures is a cannabis distributor and retailer located in California that focuses on mass-produced, low-cost, high-quality branded cannabis goods. Approximately 25 distinct cannabis products are now available from the company. 4Front dispensaries may be found in Illinois, Massachusetts, California, Michigan, and Washington, to name a few states. The first phase of a 558k sq. ft. cultivation and manufacturing plant in Illinois has been completed by 4Front. The deal is being funded by Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (NYSE: IIPR), and is expected to close in Q2 2022.
4Front reported financial results for the first quarter of 2022, reporting $32.4 million in systemwide pro forma revenue. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 2022 was $9.0 million, up 53% year over year. GAAP revenue climbed by 13% to $26.1 million year over year. Furthermore, the business finalized the acquisition of New England Cannabis Corporation in Q1 2022, effectively tripling its flower canopy in Massachusetts.
FFNTF Stock Performance
FFNTF stock closed at $0.6561 on June 15th down 6.27% in the past five days of trading. The stock has a 52-week price range of $0.562-$1.33 and is down 35.04% year to date. According to analysts at CNN Business FFNTF stock has a median price target of $1.37 per share. This median estimate would represent an upside of 109.32% from its last trading price of $0.6561.
[Read More] Are Canadian Marijuana Stocks A Buy Right Now? 3 With Fresh Lows This Week
Lowell Farms Inc.
Lowell Farms Inc is a cannabis company based in California that is rapidly expanding its market share. The company’s main goals are to create an award-winning portfolio of licensed cannabis brands for cannabis consumers, as well as innovative production skills, artisan craft cannabis cultivation, and an award-winning portfolio of legal cannabis brands. Ascend Wellness Holdings has signed a licensing arrangement with the company. The two companies will work together to provide the Lowell Smokes brand to dispensaries in Massachusetts and Illinois. Lowell and Ascend announced in November that the Lowell Smokes brand will expand to Michigan. The well-known Lowell Smokes pre-roll packets will also be accessible in Illinois, according to the company.
Lowell Farms announced financial results for the first quarter of 2022, with revenue of $12.4 million, up 13% from the same period the previous year. CPG sales climbed 10% year over year, owing to higher revenue from pre-roll and packaged flowers. In addition, the gross margin in the first quarter was 12.7 percent, compared to a negative 12.3 percent sequentially and a negative 13.4 percent year over year. The company lost $4.1 million in the first quarter, compared to a loss of $10.0 million the previous quarter. In May, the company completed a month-long acquisition of automated pre-roll manufacturing assets from Canadian company All Good Collective.
LOWLF Stock Performance
The shares of LOWLF closed at $0.2799, on June 15th up 2.60% in the past five trading days. The stock is now trading in a 52-week price range of $0.187-$1.38 and is down 12.09% year to date.
Finding The Best Ways To Invest In Penny Pot Stocks Short Term
Marijuana penny stocks are thought to have a greater risk-to-reward ratio. It’s essential to conduct your own due diligence on a company before investing. Examining a company’s financial reports and press releases might provide insight into the sector’s top performers. You may improve your odds of making better trades by using technical indicators and learning to recognize chart patterns. As investors prepare for a bear market in 2022, these may be the best marijuana penny stocks to watch right now.


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Over the coming decades, a number of auto industry-wide “epiphany moments” will cause business leaders to rethink the true scope of the impact of driverless cars.
Imagine stepping out of your house 15 years from now and using your smartphone to summon a driverless vehicle. In less than three minutes, a driverless vehicle arrives and whisks you off to work, school, shopping or wherever you want to go.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is concerned about the increasing complexity of robots and has proposed a number of recommendations for protecting workers interacting with robotic workers.
VR has the potential to make or break sports in the future. Both engagement and entertainment levels will change, as will the audience experience. It will also dispel some of the mystery behind the magic.
There are really two schools of thought on how we can compete. One option is to be guarded and minimize risk. Another is to be open and take chances. Here's my advice.
Big data can reap big rewards if you use the proper analytics process. While your internal data is invaluable, using detailed rather than summarized third-party data can often expedite your path to profitable outcomes.
Just because we don't sell an actual product online doesn't mean the digital landscape isn't critical to our success. People research what they buy online, even when they don't buy online.
Bitcoin, a global currency and payment network, continues to garner a wealth of media attention. But what impact is it having in Colorado, and what’s its appeal?
Coworking has snowballed in Colorado’s mountain towns. Kicking off the trend, DurangoSpace opened in 2011 and now attracts a wide range of creatives, techies and other professionals.
How many times has your heart started to race and your palms sweat as you instantly find yourself spun into an anxiety attack over technology?
Colorado leaders in business, policy, technology and education met with federal policy experts Tuesday to brainstorm ways for Colorado to take the lead in the successful formation of an “innovation nation.”
The Colorado Technology Association plans to meet with leaders in technology and innovation during a three-day trip to Washington, D.C. that will spotlight actionable business goals, initiatives and insights.


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The designer said the range is a “love letter to Los Angeles.”
The singer-actress was styled to perfection in a festive ensemble from the label.
The longtime Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival fan has mastered the art of dressing sensibly.
Peyton List, Alessandra Ambrosia, Olivia Culpo and other celebrities can’t get enough of Stuart Weitzman’s shoes at the California event.
The supermodel stepped out in the suede Tulum Flat lace-up sandals.
See the sneakers celebs including Kourtney Kardashian, Julianne Moore, Alessandra Ambrosio and Russell Wilson are wearing this season.
See what the biggest stars choose for their travels.


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ROCHESTER -- Local teens and young women looking for the latest fashions will soon have a new look and affordable new choices. maurices clothing store will reopen on Thursday, November 1, at 160 Washington Street, Rochester.
“Join us at 5 p.m. for the kick-off of our Sneak Peek,” says Store Manager Angela McKinley. “It kicks off a grand reopening sale where you can buy one item at the regular price and get another one at 50 percent off. Plus, you can register to win one of three $100 gift card giveaways.”
The 4,750 square-foot store will carry everything fashion savvy teens and women will need for school, work, play, evenings out, evenings in - every occasion you can think of.
The Rochester Shoppes location is one of 50+ stores that will open nationwide this year.
Maurices, a brand of Ascena Retail Group, Inc. (NASDAQ - ASNA), operates over 833 stores in 46 states and Canada. For store information and to shop online, visit maurices.com.