text:
Sometimes, even the best intentions produce overly-broad laws that cannot be enforced or that violate the First Amendment rights of innocent parties. Last year, Alaska passed Senate Bill 222 with the intent to protect minors, but the language of the law put an unreasonable burden on internet users, including comic book creators and retailers selling at both brick and mortar stores and online.
CBLDF joined the Media Coalition and a variety of plaintiffs from Alaska in challenging the law. Alaska’s KTUU highlighted the Media Coalition’s efforts to refine the language of the law and bring the law into alignment with the First Amendment before its passage. You can read a summary of these efforts here.
Despite the Media Coalition’s efforts, the Alaska Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 222. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline struck down multiple provisions of the law, citing violation of the First Amendment.
Alaska Public Radio’s Ellen Lockyer spoke with David Cheezum, co-owner of Fireside Books, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, about the burden the law would have placed on retailers had it stood:
Either your website or your store clerk have to know two things: to know the content of the books…of every book you’re selling and…to be able to read the minds of the people you’re selling the books to, to know…what their parents want them to read, what their parents don’t want them to read.
Lockyer also spoke with Anchorage attorney John McKay, who worked on the suit:
…if you keep the internet be a vehicle of communicating information that is only fit for children to receive, then that really restricts — unnecessarily and inappropriately — lots of communications that are entirely legal and appropriate for adults.
I think it’s the right result. A lot of times it can be unpopular defending…language that’s indecent or inappropriate but…the First Amendment protects unpopular speech, it protects speech that’s not right for everyone. But particularly, as is the case here, to try and limit speech to what’s appropriate for children really puts booksellers at risk if they can be held accountable for the contents of every book.
You can listen to Lockyer’s full report here.
CBLDF applauds this latest victory for the First Amendment! Please support the CBLDF’s defense of free speech issues like this by making a donation today!


text:
Published on NAB Business Research and Insights 13 July 2017 – Click here to read the full article.
It’s the simple promise of consistency and continuity that drives the international success of abalone farmers Tim Rudge and his colleagues at Yumbah. At each stage, Yumbah focused on reinforcing itself as a reliable brand that consistently delivers on its core values. Along the way, it carved out substantial niches in both Asian and Western markets.
Joining forces to market a national industry
In the early 2000s, the need to create global demand and a premium price point for their fledgling industry led a group of Australian abalone farmers to join forces under the retail label, Ausab. Building on this initial success, the group has now consolidated and expanded, forming the company Yumbah Aquaculture to propel them into the wider shellfish market.
Making ‘Australian grown’ a selling point allowed the entire abalone industry to flourish, explains Tim Rudge, General Manager of Yumbah Narrawong, the group’s Victorian farm. “It was a great example of an industry working together to commonly market its product.”
Rudge points out that as small, single-site operators, the farmers were working with limited abalone supply. “Creating one brand let us pool our resources and reliably serve larger clients allowing the business to grow significantly.”
“By naming this group Yumbah, we bring together respect for the original inhabitants of Australia and the unique qualities of the Great Southern Ocean that feeds our abalone,” explains Rudge. “It’s with permission from the traditional custodians of the Yaygirr language that we call ourselves Yumbah, or ‘larger shellfish’.”
Selling under its established Ausab label, the Yumbah group soon carved out a significant slice of the premium sashimi-grade abalone market, and is now, according to Rudge, the world’s largest supplier of cultured greenlip abalone.
The importance of consistency
Rudge stresses that continuity of supply and quality have been the key brand building blocks of Yumbah’s identity.
“Traditionally, buyers never had the opportunity to purchase abalone consistently and at a fixed price point,” he says, arguing that abalone supply from Australia, and internationally, suffered from a lack of reliability in quantity, quality and price.
“We changed the market by offering consistency of quantity, quality and price. Ownership of our vertically integrated supply chain, our technology and the geographical spread of the farms are all key to this.”
Rudge credits much of Yumbah’s business direction and success on lessons learnt from his Japanese customers.
The high quality and supply consistency demanded by them helped perfect production processes for growing a superior product. And, rather than run a separate Japanese production line, Yumbah decided to grow everything to this higher standard – and make it the company’s market differentiator.
“Promoting this grade of sustainable and ethically-produced shellfish is a real feather in our cap,” Rudge notes with pride.
“And it’s helped position us at a premium price point in Asian and Western markets alike. If you look at our packaging2, it’s clean, contemporary and western.”
He explains the Chinese recognise and value the word ‘pure’, adding that it is this concept of purity in the Australian product that buyers prize. “It’s still a special occasion purchase for many of our customers like French champagne for us.”
Eyes on future expansion
Hard work on the ground has paid off for Yumbah with the product flying off the shelves of retailer Costco in Australia and the US.
“Costco has been a revelation. We now view retail sales as having the most growth potential,” explains Rudge. “We run cooking demonstrations in the stores and try to get the message out that abalone is a flash-fry product, just like calamari. It’s really simple to prepare once you know how. And very nutritious.”
While the retail Ausab label is entrenching itself in multiple markets, Rudge and his fellow farmers haven’t forgotten their bigger game plan.
“We’ve always wanted to diversify into other shellfish,” he admits.
In 2017, the first step towards this goal was taken in a joint venture with Cameron’s Oysters to produce oyster spat at the new Yumbah Port Lincoln hatchery. Further strides along the integration journey are being made with the purchase of Yumbah Aquafeed and the commissioning of the high-tech Yumbah Processing facility in Adelaide.
Says Rudge: “The ultimate goal is for Yumbah to become a world-leading producer of environmentally-sustainable shellfish.”

domain: news


text:
Looks like McDreamy is about to go through a McNightmare of a divorce!
Now, according to legal documents, their split might not be as amicable as it once appeared.
[Image via WENN.]
We are SO excited this is really happening!!
The franchise's official Twitter account posted a brand new Pitch Perfect 2 teaser poster on Thursday and it's as AMAZEBALLZ as you might expect!!!
We cannot wait to see them again on the big screen and hear what HIGHlariously awesome new songs they sing!!
[Image via Twitter.]


text:
Now available on VOD: THE INSTITUTE
Spencer McCall’s exploration of a complex interactive game debuted at Slamdance earlier this year. Other fest stops have included True/False, Arclight Doc, Atlanta, St Louis, Wisconsin, and San Francisco Doc. It enjoyed a limited theatrical release last month and has just been made available on iTunes.
I previously wrote about the doc out of True/False here.


text:
US streaming platform Netflix has announced that its quarterly revenue and subscriptions have increased as efforts to limit password sharing begin to pay off.
The streaming giant said it added 5.9 million customers in the second quarter of 2023 following its efforts to limit password sharing.
The company reported revenue of $8.19 billion, up 3% from $7.97 billion for the same period a year earlier.
The company’s net profit reached $1.49 billion from $1.44 billion in the second quarter of 2022.
Netflix said it expects revenue to increase in the second half of the year. It now forecasts third-quarter revenue of $8.5 billion, up 7% from 2022.
Shares of the company have soared more than 60% this year.
Last May, Netflix notified users in over 100 countries of its new password sharing policy.
Platform users are required to pay extra to share their service access codes with non-household members.
The streaming giant said more than 100 million people worldwide watch its content through password sharing. Subscribers who share their passwords outside of the same house now pay $7.99 more per month.
Netflix had added a cheaper subscription with advertising at the end of 2022, after years of reluctance.


text:
by William J. Langenberg
Even though a lot of effort and money is spent on educating consumers to buy local, many are still shopping at the big box stores for vegetable and herb plants. Many local vendors are competitive to big box stores. Grenville Herb Farm’s tomato plants, for example, grown at home, in Merrickville, right in our community, sell for $5.00, which includes the HST. In addition, local vegetable and herb plants are grown according to season. Tomato plants come first at the end of May, followed by basil plants at the beginning of June. Cucumbers follow the basil during the second week of June. Perennials are available towards the end of June. The sale of plants is seasonal, related to the weather, which is specific to Eastern Ontario.
When I arrived in Kemptville in 1975, most plants and produce bought at our local stores were seasonal only. Today, they are available year round. We need to change that buying attitude and pattern.
Buying local reduces the release of CO2 into the atmosphere. Europeans, who signed the Kyoto and Paris Climate Accords, are dedicated to buy local produce only. Vegetable and herb plants bought at big box stores, which are grown commercially at farms in Southern Ontario, and transported by truck to your local big box stores, release on average 0.5 – 1.0 kg of CO2 per kg of product into the atmosphere. Produce grown locally, and sold at farmers’ markets, release 0 -0.5 kg of CO2 per kg of product into the atmosphere, depending how far our growing location is from the market.
Reducing climate change starts at home. A little effort, by buying seasonally and locally, will put a dent into the CO2 release, reduces the climate change potential, and will save our planet for future generations. Don’t forget that produce and fruit and vegetable transplants will become more expensive in the not-so-distant future, when bought at local stores, as our Governments slowly increase the carbon tax on fossil fuels. The Federal Government is expected to increase carbon tax from the current 2.3 cents per litre to well over 11 cents by 2022.
Many prospective or new home gardeners were commenting over the past few weeks, since our local farmers’ market opened: “I wish that Kemptville College was still open and we could get some basic training in growing fruits, vegetables and herbs at home”. A prospective new Council may be on the horizon and, perhaps, would be able to fulfill that request. Kemptville, after all, has always been the agricultural hub in Eastern Ontario, helping local growers and farmers to bring the best quality and nutritious crops to market, at the lowest possible price and CO2 release.
We all need to put our priorities into buying local as much as possible for the sustainability of North Grenville and surrounding regions.


text:
Deere & Co. is expecting weaker sales next year as high interest rates and a tough agricultural market keeps farmers from upgrading tractors and equipment.
Large ag equipment industry sales in the U.S. and Canada are forecasted to decline 10% to 15% in fiscal year 2024, following three years of record demand, executives said on a fourth quarter earnings call last week. Quarterly sales dipped 1% to $15.41 billion, due in part to lower shipment volumes and softer demand as parts of the world deal with economic uncertainty.
Deere reported net income of $2.37 billion in the fourth quarter, allowing the agricultural machinery giant to post one of its most profitable years. Company shares fell as much as 7% on news of a softer outlook, but have recovered to around $362 as of Monday morning.
North American customers remain profitable and inventory rates for large agricultural equipment are strong heading into 2024, Brent Norwood, director of investor relations at Deere, said in an earnings call Wednesday. However, executives are tempering expectations as lower commodity prices and higher interest rates weigh on demand for agricultural machinery and equipment.
Based on early sales and pre-orders for the U.S. and Canada, Norwood said combine volumes are expected to be down double-digits, while tractors are already sold out through the end of the third quarter.
In 2024, Deere is expecting its production and precision agriculture segment to decline as much as 20% in terms of sales, driven by softer demand in North America, Europe and Brazil. Sales could fall as much as 15% in the company’s small agriculture and turf segment and 10% in construction and forestry.
After years of disruptions and market challenges, Deere saw a return to normalcy in terms of operations in the fourth quarter. Factories resumed seasonal shipping patterns and production rates, allowing the company to deliver products to customers on time and at expected costs, Norwood said.
Efforts to mitigate supply chain disruptions and subsequent moves to keep stock balanced will allow the company to better weather a slowdown in demand next year.
"The production constraints of the last few years, combined with better inventory discipline from Deere, positions the company really well as demand pivots in 2024," Norwood said.


text:
LG strongly believes in Make in India programme and will continue production in India.
LG Electronics, the country’s second-largest consumer electronics firm, has voiced concerns on the lack of enough incentives to expand local television manufacturing.
Umesh Dhal, chief relationship officer, LG Electronics India, said to Business Standard that local manufacturing can be made attractive by abolishing customs duty on panels and open cells till manufacturing ecosystem for same is ready in India. He also said the government should incentivise manufacturers for local production.
This statement came at a time when the country’s largest consumer durable firm Samsung India is negotiating hard with the government. The firm has moved its TV production to Vietnam and is seeking additional sops to restart manufacturing here.
Dhal also said the goods and services tax (GST) rate on TV sets should be brought down, as it is more of an educative device.
India production continues
LG, however, is not halting its production. Dhal said that LG strongly believes in Make in India programme and will continue production in India. He further stated to the English Daily that every year, LG invests to strengthen their manufacturing facilities and will continue doing the same. The firm currently manufactures TVs in Noida and Pune.


text:
“A rose smells sweetest when it's growing in manure” Ruers
|Category: Inoffensive Centrist Democracy|
Regional Influence: Dominator
Location: The Conservative Democracies
World Census observers counted the number of times their car stereo was stolen from outside fast food stores to determine which nations have relatively high levels of youth-related crime.


text:
Editorial: Small business feeling the pinch of tight job market
Here are three words rarely heard during eight years of the Obama administration: Tight job market.
In the Trump era, the U.S. economy is booming. The job market is strong. Wages are rising. The chronically unemployed are finding their way back to the workplace. This is a nice problem to have.
And it is a problem, particularly for small businesses struggling to compete with larger employers to attract and retain workers. Leveraging their economic prowess, larger firms are poaching workers from small firms, government and nonprofits. Higher pay and benefits are on offer.
Small businesses are also suffering inordinately from President Trump’s trade policy. Tariffs pose a threat to smaller firms because, The Wall Street Journal reports, “they have less ability to deflect higher materials prices or pass along new costs to consumers.”
Smaller firms have long been the backbone of the U.S. economy, accounting for enormous job creation even in times when economic conditions are in decline. But things are changing and it’s not all related to trade policy and economic expansion.
In fact, the small-business share of the gross domestic product has been declining for years. The percentage of U.S. workers employed by smaller firms has also been slipping.
Statistics on small-business growth and hiring tend to lag years behind real time. USA Today reported last week that Americans started 414,000 companies in 2015, the latest year for which data are available. The total compares with 524,000 annually in the five years before the latest recession.
Smaller employers tend to beef up employment as recessions wane and market conditions start to improve but also when a large recession-effected labor pool is available. Larger firms expand when the economy itself is robust, as is happening now.
“All the evidence suggests that small businesses are the principal casualty of the tight job market,” a Moody’s Analytics economist told USA Today.
Added to the shrinking labor pool and poaching problem is the tariff scenario. Combined, these things make for a tough time to run a business with 50 or fewer employees.
The Journal cites a survey by Vistage Worldwide Inc. showing optimism for growth among smaller firms is at the lowest level since the 2016 presidential election, when the country was still reeling from the effects of a presidential administration indifferent to jobs creation.
Even smaller firms that have the desire and justification for job creation can’t find workers willing to eschew the relative security of working for a large corporation.
When the economy turns south, as it inevitably will, it’s likely fewer small businesses will be around to hire workers let go by large employers. Simply put, Americans aren’t forming start-up businesses at the pace they once did. Name an industry — banking, retail, hospitality, etc. — and employment is concentrated in larger firms with multiple locations.
President Trump has reason to brag about improved job creation, but should not ignore the challenges still facing smaller businesses.
Federal policymakers need to wake up and smell the coffee still being brewed — but for how long? — by that independent barista on Main Street USA.
— The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City


text:
A new app concept, Huggg, which enables people to send friends a comforting coffee or celebratory drink at the tap of a button, is using Bristol and Bath as its UK launchpad
Available for free in the app store, Huggg has partnered several much-loved brands including Friska, Turtle Bay, Be At One, Byron and Society Café to offer carefully selected items from their menus as ‘hugggs’.
Users download the app and can use it to send ‘hugggs’ to friends, family, colleagues or anyone else they feel deserves a treat, selecting which food or drink item is best suited each time, whether it is a thankyou dinner, a birthday cocktail or a cheering cappuccino.
“There are points in life where a message alone doesn’t say enough, and a little extra thoughtfulness would go a long way,” said Paul Wickers, Huggg co-founder and CEO.
“Huggg is such a great and easy way to let someone know you’re thinking of them – whether it is as a thank you, a birthday message or simply because you’re feeling generous, sending someone a huggg is guaranteed to bring a smile to their face.”
After signing into the app, users can buy and send ‘hugggs’ wherever they are, instantly, via their mobile.
Huggg co-founder Alice Cox added: “A huggg is perfect when you want to do something more meaningful than texting someone or leaving a message on their Facebook wall.
“If you want to thank someone for helping you out with something or cheer them up during a tough week, surprise them with a steaming hot cappuccino huggg. It is easy, fun and instantaneous.”
Huggg was conceived in 2014 when then-banker Paul Wickers was researching the greeting card market for a deal. It occurred to him what an antiquated concept a paper card was and he began thinking about what could replace the card in the digital age.
While pondering what would bring happiness for a similarly minor cost, an idea struck him.
Working with Alice, Paul has developed Huggg into a simple user-friendly app which adds an entirely new dimension to instant messaging. The pair used insights into the psychology of thoughtfulness to construct Huggg, striking a balance between immediacy, generosity and thoughtfulness.
Funding was raised through private investment in 2015, with the help of two founding investors, Stephen Jones and Matthew Hunt, who had the vision to back the idea based solely on some early visual-only prototypes.
In September 2016 the technology was ready, more investment was raised and Paul moved with Alice into new offices in Bristol.
Now ready to launch initially across Bristol and Bath, with plans to roll it out nationally in the next few months, the team are confident their hard work has paid off.
“We want to make generosity easy and we couldn’t have chosen a better place to launch this concept than Bristol – voted the UK’s kindest city in 2016,” said Paul.
For more information, go to huggg.me


text:
Duane Reade, LIC, Is Open!
It just keeps getting better. First, it's the supermarket opening that LIC has waited years for. And, just like that, Duane Reade opens next door. One of my agents was out in LIC on Friday and he can confirm that the Duane Reade is indeed open for business.


text:
SkillOnNet has hailed what is “becoming a hugely important vertical” within the online gaming ecosystem after gaining an arcade games boost via Arcadia Gaming.
This has brought about the integration of Fortune Pusher, a live arcade-style coin-pusher game that offers players the chance to win 500 times their stake. The title is live via SkillOnNet’s .com (Malta-licensed) sites.
This will ensure that players gain the ability to remotely control live, physical arcade machines with a touch of a button on their desktop or mobile devices.
A spokesperson at Arcadia said: “Our games combine the sense of trust that players get from live gaming with the arcade machines they know and love for a truly unbeatable player experience.
“We’re really passionate about our games, and this deal means they will be out there on one of the biggest and best platforms in the industry.”
The deal will further enhance SkillOnNet’s live gaming platform, which was recently bolstered through content deals with Stakelogic Live, Ezugi, and NetEnt.
“Arcade games are becoming a hugely important vertical as we look to innovative new content that appeals to newer generations and veteran gamers alike,” stated Jani Kontturi, Head of Games at SkillOnNet.
“There is really no one doing what Arcadia are doing at the moment. We’re witnessing the evolution of live gaming in a way that is totally ground-breaking and, even more importantly, hugely fun.”


text:
The Ford Explorer and “Jurassic Park” both went on to become classics and will always be intertwined.
While an electric Ford Explorer recently joined the company’s lineup in Europe, the pioneering SUV wore an EV disguise more than 30 years ago in its biggest Hollywood role, and created one of the most iconic movie vehicles of all time in the process.
Seven 1992 Ford Explorer XLTs were painted lime green, yellow and maroon to chauffeur guests around the prehistoric park.
“When it came time to cast for the record-breaking movie ‘Jurassic Park,’ the producers wanted heroes,” reads a 1993 Ford advertisement. “They wanted rugged types. Basically, they wanted Explorers. Maybe it’s because Ford Explorer has a sense of adventure limited only by the imagination. But then again, this is the best-selling sport utility vehicle on earth. And we built it to be a big hit with just about any audience.”
Hollywood comes calling
Explorer was just two years removed from joining the Ford lineup, but it was already a hit by the time filming began for “Jurassic Park.” A fleet of seven 1992 Ford Explorer XLTs served as the basis for the memorable lime green, yellow and maroon SUVs used to chauffeur guests around the prehistoric park, and they played an integral role in the terrifying sequences that transpired once the park’s residents went rogue.
The Explorers were heavily modified for the film and gave the appearance they were both electric and self-driving.
The modified Explorers also continued the suspended reality when it came to their propulsion systems. The vehicles in the film appeared to be guided through the park by an electrified track that MotorTrend speculates could have been meant to imply it represented an inductive charging system for the SUVs, which also gave the appearance that they operated on a backup battery when the power at the park goes out.
The Explorers not only created the illusion they were early EVs, but also appeared autonomous in the film. They were modified for filming in part by the famed customizer George Barris, whose handiwork included creating the illusion that the Explorers were the world’s first self-driving vehicles. Unlike the mystery around the SUVs’ powertrain, the explanation around their operation is more obvious: The vehicles were built with an additional set of controls in the cargo area so they could be driven by a human operator.
The “Jurassic Park” Explorer has gone on to become one of the most popular movie-specific vehicles of all-time.
Other modifications included the addition of brush guards, auxiliary lighting, sensors, cameras and video monitors, but it was the Explorer’s clear bubble top roof that took center stage during a vicious T. rex attack.
‘Jurassic Park’ Explorers in the wild
The Explorer was featured at a time when product placement in TV and movies was still a relatively new avenue for advertising and would end up being immortalized in toys, books and video games. But perhaps the vehicle’s most enduring legacy can be seen in the countless real-world one-off reproductions, one of which was even featured at the 2022 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Many of the re-creations dutifully adhere to the standards of their colorful cousins.
Despite Explorer’s hiatus from the big screen, the SUV is still America’s best-selling of all time, with more than eight million sold. Ordering for the new 2025 Ford Explorer is now open, while vehicles are expected to start shipping in the spring.


text:
Cool gas is coming, but it won’t be as quick as you think
The hottest gas in the world is finally here, and it’s not going to be as easy as you might think.
Cool Gas is a gas used in many of the world’s hottest appliances, including some of the most popular ones like the gas oven and gas grill.
The latest release from the UK’s Gas Industry Association, Cool Gas, will come into stores later this month and has a long history of being touted as one of the best gas appliances.
Gas heaters are just one of many products being touted for their low carbon emissions.
“Cool gas” is a new category of gas, and the new product will have many of its features, like the high pressure, carbon dioxide and a low-cost, low-wattage design.
Cool gas will be a big step up from what we’re used to with gas heaters.
The company says it will be “more efficient than any other gas burner on the market” and “great for small spaces and for home cooking.”
It will be more efficient than some other gas burners on the planet Cool Gas has a carbon footprint of just 0.7 tonnes of CO2 per kilogram, compared to gas burnants like gas boilers and gas stoves which emit 4.6 tonnes.
Coolgas also emits less CO2 than traditional gas heat systems and is the cheapest gas burner you can buy.
But the company will be limited to the UK.
The British Gas and Energy Association (BGEA) says it has been testing Coolgas for the last two years and expects it to come into service in March 2018.
BGEA also announced that it has signed a deal to sell Coolgas to gas companies.
“BGEAs decision to supply Coolgas with the British Gas Supply Group is in line with BGEAs long-term commitment to reduce CO2 emissions and ensure customers benefit from lower prices,” the company said.
CoolGas is the first gas burner to be licensed to be used by UK gas companies, which means it’s the first fuel to be offered in the UK for the fuel industry to sell to other countries.
It is the latest in a string of UK gas-powered appliances that have been given green light by the government.
Gas is used in some of Australia’s most popular appliances.
The National Gas Association has previously said Coolgas will be cheaper than alternative gas burnings like coal-fired power stations.
The government says it’s hoping to sell about 1 million Coolgas products globally over the next 10 years.
It will only be available in Britain.
“We believe that a UK-only license will enable us to deliver the fuel for a number of other markets including the European market,” a BGEa spokesperson told News.org.au.
“This is an important milestone in the British gas industry’s transition to new, higher-value products that will deliver benefits for our customers.”


text:
Mattapoisett reopens Town Hall to public
MATTAPOISETT — After closing to the public for nine weeks, Town Hall is now open to the public in a socially-safe fashion from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“I think these hours will work wonders for the town,” said Town Administrator Michael Lorenco, adding that staff are still available by phone or email from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Residents looking to buy a beach pass with the town clerk or pay taxes with the treasurer can consult them from a walk-up window outside to maintain social distancing.
Officials can meet residents in Town Hall by appointment as long as both wear a mask inside.. Discussions can be scheduled online or over the phone.
The town’s Free Public Library and Council on Aging facility will open at a later date.
To further protect residents, the Board of Selectmen will be sending a letter to all businesses in town asking them to adhere to safety guidelines and reminding them that the board can impose fines and seek court orders to correct non-compliant businesses.


text:
Apple has confirmed record sales for its newly launched iPad models, iPad Mini and the fourth generation iPad. As per the sources it was a new weekend sales for the company as the company officials informed that they sold 3 million iPad units within 3 days of the launch of the new 7.9 inch iPad Mini. iPad Mini sales even exceeded the initial supply delaying the delivery of the device to some of the users.
Apple CEO, Tim Cook was excited about these sales figures and commented "Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad". The company had launched these new iPad models in around 34 countries on Friday with Wi-Fi connectivity.
Tim also mentioned that they would soon roll out these iPad models with more connectivity options soon. Though Apple had positioned and priced this model to be slightly at premium when compared to other 7 inch models, their successful sales record reflects the fact that its design and functional richness has been appreciated by users.
The positive sentiment over this record sale seems to have made an impact on the stock prices too. Apple’s share price rose 1.5 percent to hit the $585.78 mark. The company and analysts are also optimistic that Apple can achieve the set milestone of 6.5 million iPad Mini sales for this quarter looking at their initial sales figures. Apple is optimistic that they will be able to make better sales in the coming days due to the holiday season, introduction of iPad models with more connectivity options as well as launch in new countries including China.
Click Here For Read More Specifications About iPad Mini.......


text:
Polygon has been chosen by the South Korean video game conglomerate Nexon to handle the Web3 connectivity of its MapleStory World.
Reports indicate that the video game publisher with headquarters in Tokyo intends to establish (1) a Polygon supernet in order to provide support for the in-game content associated with MapleStory Universe.
According to recent reports, the well-known non-fungible token (NFT) game will rely on the private supernet in order to fulfill the demanding standards of online gaming.
One of the most successful games published by Nexon, MapleStory currently has a player base of over 180 million registered accounts.
The two-dimensional side-scrolling game intends to attract a more diverse group of players by submitting it to Web3 with its very own polygonal supernet.
A Polygon supernet is a blockchain stack that can be customized, is conducive to flexibility, and can be extended. This stack gives developers the ability to create unique networks for current applications.
The current version of MapleStory’s in-game currency is used whenever players buy, sell, or trade items with one another.
The Polygon supernet, on the other hand, will make it easier for users to acquire and collect non-fictional items through games. These goods have the potential to unlock a wide variety of additional benefits and utilities located across the MapleStory environment.
After the announcement that Nexon is partnering with Polygon, MATIC has seen a 5.5% increase.
At yesterday’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Nexon broke the news about the upcoming partnership between MapleStory and Polygon.
In the meantime, the value of Polygon’s native MATIC coin increased as a result of the announcement made by one of the most successful game companies in Asia. The Ethereum-based virtual money has seen its value increase by 5.5% over the past twenty-four hours.
The leader of the MapleStory Universe Group, Hwang Sun-young, offered some commentary on the progress being made with Polygon. He said:
Building on Polygon is an exciting step for us because it will allow us to contribute to the growth of the NFT ecosystem envisaged by MapleStory Universe. The game’s development and marketing will be carried out in close collaboration with the staff at Polygon Labs.
Polygon Labs Vice President of the Global Gaming and Platform Business, Urvit Goel
The development of things also had an impact on the development. Goel also stated the following while pointing out that the future game’s supernet will provide Nexon with its very own “dedicated app chain”:
“[Nexon and its intended supernet] have the capability to scale in a way that scaling on a shared blockchain is not possible. Because the game and the intellectual property are so expansive, they have a really broad vision about how many trades they think they’ll do each day.
In 2003, Nexon released MapleStory, which has since become one of the company’s most important products. The Japanese-South Korean gaming powerhouse has a tremendous following for this title, which has helped it generate an income of over $4 billion since its release.
MapleStory made the announcement about the MapleStory Universe in the year 2022. However, the company has not yet disclosed a definitive release date.
However, Goel has previously clarified that there would be no NFT presales for the game, meaning that any in-game microtransactions would be rendered null and void.
Instead, by just playing MapleStory Universe, users have the opportunity to acquire things through the use of NFTs.
MapleStory Universe will be a game that focuses on NFTs, and as such, it will have many tokenized assets that players will be able to trade or transfer thru an in-game marketplace.
In addition, Nexon intends for the Universe to someday have its own specialized cryptocurrency, but the specifics have not yet been worked out.
“We plan on issuing our own unique coin, and specific specifics regarding this will be given later with our tokenomics,” the game company added. “Our tokenomics will also provide additional information on this.”
In other news, the President of Polygon Labs, Ryan Wyatt, stated that South Korea is a crucial market for Web3 gaming.


text:
The government will not take the data for free, says official
Acquisition details of data sets may also be made public
The PDP Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha last month
The Indian government may pay companies for any non-personal and anonymous data about consumers sought from them. It will also be reportedly revealing acquisition details of data sets to the public.
“There is a lot of misunderstanding among companies. The government will not take the data for free, and whatever it takes will be revealed to the public,” a top official aware of the development was quoted as saying by ET.
He also added that these issues are likely to be resolved as the Bill is finalised and its rules are notified. “Any such acquisition of data sets will be made public through routine disclosures to ensure there is no misuse by the state,” the official said.
Sharing an example on the kind of data the government plans to seek, the official said that the government will ask companies such as ride-hailing app Uber to share anonymous data on last mile connectivity from a metro station. This is apparently to help the government plan the next phase of expansion for public transportation systems.
“Unless the government pays for such data, it will not stand the scrutiny of any court of law since the companies have accumulated that data after spending a considerable amount of time and resources,” the official added.
Recommended For You:
Raising Concerns About The Bill
Reacting to the idea of paying for data, industry representatives told ET that the question is not whether the government pays or not, but whether a company that does not wish to sell its data will be “forced” to do so.
The Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha last month and has been referred to a select committee of Parliament.
The bill has gathered criticism from many corners for allowing law enforcement agencies to process personal data of users without consent for “reasonable purposes”. Justice BN Srikrishna, who led the committee that drafted the bill, called it “dangerous”. He said that this can turn India into an Orwellian state.
The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) also said that the suggested provisions in the data protection bill raise serious concerns as some of the rules can be restrictive for service providers and enterprises and may not be inclined towards India’s target of a $1 Tn digital economy by 2024. The body also claimed that it would isolate India in the global economy as service providers who do not get certification approval from DPA will not be able to offer their services in the country.
Meanwhile, the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) has requested the Joint Parliamentary Committee formed for a review of the current PDP bill to offer a public consultation of the bill before proceeding with it. According to the IFF, such a consultation will ensure that the public has a chance to give their comments on the PDP bill.


text:
Years ago, a popular word in the world of health was “telomere,” the protective area at the end of the chromosomes. When cells replicate, they lose some of this protective area until the telomeres become so worn down that the cells can’t replicate correctly any longer. That’s why telomere length is considered a marker of age.
However, for runners, there is some good news. Research suggests that endurance exercise helps preserve telomere length as one ages. A 2013 study found that the telomeres of ultrarunners were 11 percent longer, correlating with a 16-year decrease in biological age than non-runners.
The question is, how much running is required to see benefits to telomere length? One researcher, Dr. Larry Tucker, a professor of exercise science at Brigham Young University, researched the question. Among nearly 6,000 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, those who exercised had longer telomeres, but only in the group with high physical activity.
According to some of the findings, the highly active group’s cells appear nearly nine years younger than the sedentary group’s telomeres after adjusting for differences in demographic and lifestyle. However, there isn’t a significant difference in telomere length between those who don’t exercise, have low physical activity or moderate physical activity. To receive the benefits of exercise, one has to be in the highest active bracket of people who exercise.
Based on the study, Dr. Tucker identifies the threshold for exercise. Women should jog for 30 minutes, five days a week while men should run for 40 minutes, five days a week.
However, Dr. Tucker also published another 2017 study with similar data in the Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging. He researched eating nuts and seeds and found that those who consumed about 3 percent of their total energy intake via nuts and seeds were one year “younger” in telomere length. A further study on the impacts of caffeine and coffee on our health was a bit more complex. Dr. Tucker found that caffeine makes telomeres shorter, but coffee makes them longer. Previous studies show that caffeine can interfere with DNA repair and disturbs chromosomes, but coffee has anti-inflammatory components that are beneficial for our health. So, the two compete with each other when they’re consumed. Various factors may predict which one will be more effective in our systems and it depends on the strength of the coffee.
For every 100 milligrams of caffeine we consume daily, telomeres were 35.4 base pairs shorter. Every 100 grams of coffee that are consumed daily shows telomeres were 15 base pairs longer. For instance, a grande (16 oz) Starbucks medium roast coffee will have 300 milligrams of caffeine, so consumers are trading the 68-base pair benefit of the coffee with the 106-base pair loss from the caffeine. At this level, it might not seem significant, but if caffeine consumption is higher than its effects are noticeable on telomeres.
Overall, most studies find that exercising with coffee consumption can keep us energized, active and help us feel younger too. Telomere research is still uncovering new information about how exercise improves our body’s health and youthfulness. For now, it appears a healthy diet mixed with a regular running schedule can help boost our health and longevity.


text:
Nicollet Diner opens in new location
The all-day-and-night comforts of Nicollet Diner have landed inside their new location at 1333 Nicollet Mall in the former Ichiban space. Head down to hash-brown town for breakfast any hour of any day — a restaurant rarity. The diner is just one part of the plans for this location; next will be the 100-seat Roxy Cabaret Theater.
Arts & Rec rooftop open in Uptown
The former Libertine rooftop has found new life as Arts and Rec, a rooftop bar with crazy fried snacks (like Dorito-crusted cod) that's open at 4 p.m. Mon.-Thu. and 11 a.m. Fri.-Sun. — weather-permitting. Cocktails include a tableside mini-keg, boozy popsicles and more. The open-air spot is phase one of an artist-led experience that will eventually include mini-golf, artist-decorated spaces and more. Find it at 3001 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., artsandrecuptown.com.
Kosher sushi coming soon
The ambitious Stewart Woodman vehicle Shiloh, previously announced to replace Prime Deli with chef-driven kosher fine dining, is no longer in the works in a St. Louis Park strip mall (4224 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park). Instead, look for the imminent opening of Sato, a sushi restaurant that adheres to Jewish dietary guidelines. Sushi is one of the easiest cuisines to adapt to that dietary framework, proprietors say; the most obvious omission on the menu will be shellfish. The restaurant will also offer American bistro fare. Look for a late-August opening.
Changes for Bootstrap Coffee Roasters
St. Paul's Bootstrap Coffee Roasters is now Backstory Roasters in what they say is a move to align with the stories they tell through their coffee. With that change comes another: a new location at 528 Washington Av. N. in Minneapolis' North Loop. Founded in 2014 by Micah Svejda, the roastery opened its first coffee shop at 432 S. Wabasha St., St. Paul, in 2018; the new shop should open this fall.
Vegan chef challenge is here
If you're noticing an uptick of vegan fare, it's because we're in the midst of the Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge, which runs through August. Diners eating at participating restaurants can vote on their favorites. Find the extensive list of restaurants and vote at exploreveg.org. The winner will be announced at Twin Cities Veg Fest on Sept. 18 at Harriet Island Park in St. Paul. The challenge is being held by Compassionate Action for Animals.
Nixta popup this week
Nixta's Gustavo Romero and Tullibee's Marque Collins are joining forces for a popup on Aug. 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hewing's back alley (300 Washington Av. N., Mpls.). A $35 ticket will get you two street tacos, a Revel Avila tequila tasting and live music. Get tickets at hewing.com/events.
Bottom's up for bourbon dinner
The Butcher's Tale (1121 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., butcherstale.com) is holding a limited-release bourbon dinner Aug. 20 at 7 p.m. guided by a Beam Suntory representative. The event is in Butcher's spiffy new beer garden and will feature three courses — scallops, smoked wagyu brisket, spare ribs and lobster tail are all on the menu — paired with one of the limited spirits. Cost is $150; call 612-236-4075 to reserve a seat.
Taste of Lakeville
The Taste of Lakeville is Aug. 17 from 5-9 p.m. at the Lakeville Arts Center (20965 Holyoke Av., Lakeville). Two options: a VIP experience ($150) gives you exclusive indoor access to premium wine and spirits, pairings, tastings, entertainment and more. The standard ticket ($50 in advance, $60 at the gate) celebrates local restaurants, caterers and more with samples and tastings. The event, for ages 21 and older, is a fundraising event for the city's Rotary club. Get tickets at tasteoflakeville.org.
Food truck reminder
The Eagan Food Truck Festival is Aug. 12 from 4-9 p.m. at the city's Festival Grounds, 1501 Central Pkwy. The event is free, and there will be more than 20 food trucks as well as live music and beer, wine and seltzer.
A traveling bake sale highlighting the talents of Asian American and Pacific Islander home-based and professional bakers is coming to Minneapolis. Preorders are now open for a selection of 18 desserts curated by With Warm Welcome (withwarmwelcome.com), a group that promotes Asian Americans in hospitality. Featured bakers include Linh Nguyen of Mi-Sant Bahn Mi Co., Michelle Kwan of Keefer Court Bakery and Tiff Singh of Laune Bread. At $100 per order, 10% of proceeds benefit the Hmong American Partnership organization. Order at exploretock.com/withwarmwelcome for pickup Aug. 28 at Ingredient, 575 SE. 9th St., Mpls.


text:
Outlaw Beverage, Co-Founder Collins in Dispute Over A-Shoc
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated from its original version.
On Tuesday, Outlaw Beverage Inc. was denied a preliminary injunction in the Delaware Court of Chancery that would have blocked co-founder Lance Collins from launching his new product, energy drink Adrenaline Shoc (A Shoc), in stores this month.
Outlaw alleged that Collins stole the brand, design and formula for A Shoc, a “performance energy” line which was announced in April.
Collins, who has created beverage brands such as FUZE, Core and NOS, remains the second largest shareholder in Outlaw Beverage. The ruling clears the way for A Shoc to launch into retail this month.
In order to receive a preliminary junction in its favor, a plaintiff must establish “reasonable probability of success on the merits, that irreparable harm will result if an injunction is not granted, and that the balance of equities favors the issuance of the injunction.”
The crux of the case centers on an August 2018 meeting between Outlaw CEO Jesus Delgado-Jenkins, Collins and representatives of 7-Eleven during which the convenience store chain expressed an interest in contracting Outlaw to produce a private label product to compete with the fast-growing energy drink Bang. The motion for preliminary injunction hinged on the probability of Outlaw proving its claim that Collins created A Shoc “expressly and solely” in his role as an Outlaw director and as a result of the August meeting.
According to a telephone transcript, in which he explained his decision to deny the plaintiffs’ motion to attorneys from both parties, Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard said that email evidence showed that Delagado-Jenkins was aware in October 2018 that Collins had applied for various trademarks related to Adrenaline Shoc in the name of Chez Isabelle, LLC. That same month, Collins reportedly sent Delgado-Jenkins a text message which indicated there was “no way” in which he would be “putting A Shoc in Outlaw.”
In October, 7-Eleven informed Outlaw it was suspending its pursuit of a private label energy drink, and has not revived its interest at any time since.
With regards to the brand, Bouchard noted that Collins personally came up with the name, applied for the trademark and paid for all the work related to A Shoc. The fact that Delgado-Jenkins was “aware in real time” about the trademark filings made on behalf of Chez Isabelle and did not object to them “would undermine Outlaw being able to prove at trial that the Adrenaline Shoc brand was created or developed by Collins expressly and solely in his capacity as a director of Outlaw,” the chancellor said.
In addition, Bouchard said evidence showed that Collins himself, rather than Outlaw, paid independent consultants for design and presentation materials related to A Shoc, and was thus not acting expressly and solely as a director of Outlaw.
According to the transcript, Paula Grant, owner of design agency Flood Creative, prepared a presentation of new brand ideas for a September 2018 meeting with 7-Eleven which included an A Shoc can design created by independent designer John Malloy, who was hired by Collins. Grant said she prepared the presentation as a favor to Collins and that the matter was separate from billings for other work done by Flood Creative on the relaunch of Outlaw.
Finally, Bouchard knocked down Outlaw’s claim of ownership over the formula for A Shoc, citing testimony by Nancy Vorbach, who led the development of A Shoc’s formula for Wild Flavors, disputing the energy drink maker’s assertion that Collins’ product was “based off the formula for Outlaw.”
These incidents, according to the chancellor, established that Outlaw knew that Collins intended to develop A Shoc as a separate entity long before bringing the issue to court in May and therefore the defendants’ assertion that Outlaw waited an “unreasonable” amount of time — seven months — before filing the complaint against Collins last month was “meritorious.”
Bouchard also rejected Outlaw’s claim that the delay was due to Collins allegedly lying to Delgado-Jenkins for six months about his plans for A Shoc, noting that the company had “not provided any corroborative testimony or documentary evidence to support this assertion.” The chancellor noted that Delgado-Jenkins “tellingly” never suggested to distribution partner Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) that Outlaw had “any interest or role in Adrenaline Shoc” in November 2018 when KDP expressed an interest in a joint venture to bring the product to market in his presence, nor did he mention the brand during Outlaw’s January board meeting or in a February letter to investors. Outlaw has not presented planning documents, sales forecasts, or any other internal papers after mid-October 2018 reflecting A Shoc was its product, according to the transcript.
Rather than seeking to defend Outlaw’s alleged ownership of A Shoc, the chancellor said Delgado-Jenkins sought to obtain an equity interest in the brand. He cited a private placement memo from December 2018 in which Delgado-Jenkins is listed as chief strategy officer at A Shoc and a December 2018 signed draft LLC agreement for A Shoc that stated he would receive equity in the company. In March 2019, Delgado-Jenkins reportedly gave Collins information on his LLC for the purpose of obtaining 50,000 shares in A Shoc.
“Indeed, it was only after Delgado-Jenkins appeared to realize in April 2019 that he would not be an investor in A Shoc that the claims in this case were asserted,” the chancellor said in the transcript.
By delaying its legal action until shortly prior to A Shoc’s launch, Outlaw was unreasonable and prejudicial to the defendants, Bouchard noted.
“Enjoining the introduction of Adrenaline Shoc is far more likely, in my view, to impose significant and tangible harm on A Shoc than declining to issue an injunction would impose on Outlaw,” he said, according to a transcript.
In response to the ruling, Collins wrote in an email: “A Shoc is full steam ahead. A Shoc Energy products will be in the market by next week! Get ready America for A Shoc to revolutionize the energy category.”
A Shoc is set to launch in roughly 30-40,000 stores this month, largely in the convenience channel. The brand’s regional priorities will include all of California, Texas, and Nevada as well as Denver and Chicago, with a broader expansion planned for September.
Fairlife Hit With Class Actions Suits
Embattled dairy brand Fairlife is facing a pair of class action complaints over alleged deceptive marketing practices, as the fallout continues from a video released earlier this month exposing animal abuse at the company’s flagship partner farm.
In a June 11 filing with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, the plaintiff, Alain Michael, accused Fairlife, along with co-founders Mike McCloskey and Sue McCloskey, of deceiving consumers by promising to provide “extraordinary care and comfort for our cows.”
“Fairlife’s and its founders’ ‘promise’ is a sham,” the complaint reads. “Their cows do not receive ‘extraordinary care and comfort.’ As a matter of routine and practice, Fairlife’s cows are tortured, kicked, stomped on, body slammed, stabbed with steel rebar, thrown off the side of trucks, dragged through the dirt by their ears, and left to die unattended in over 100-degree heat.”
A second complaint on the same charges was filed by plaintiffs Andrew Schwartz and Alice Vitiello in the same U.S. District Court on June 12.
The lawsuits stem from the release of undercover video provided by animal rights organization Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) that showed graphic abuse of cows at Fair Oaks, Ind.-based Fair Oaks Farms, which is owned by McCloskey. The footage — which shows newborn calves being beaten, kicked, and tossed, among other acts of cruelty — has led to public backlash, including organized protests at the company’s Chicago headquarters and retailers such as Family Express, Strack & Van Til, and Jewel-Osco removing Fairlife products from store shelves.
Plaintiff’s attorneys are seeking damages, expenses and costs, and to permanently enjoin Fairlife and the McCloskeys from engaging in unlawful conduct.
One arrest has been made in the case so far: Edgar Gardozo Vazequez, 36, was detained on Wednesday by local and state police authorities on misdemeanor and felony charges of beating a vertebrate animal. Two other men — Miguel Angel Navarro Serrano, 38, and Santiago Ruvalcaba Contreros, 31 — are still being sought by police.
Fairlife has responded to the video by announcing a series of changes, effective immediately. In addition to the immediate suspension of all deliveries from Fair Oaks Farms, the company said it will complete a total audit of its 30 partner farms within 30 days and will commit to performing 24 unannounced animal welfare audits on each farm every year moving forward. Employees will also undergo an annual animal welfare training certification program.
La Croix Faces New Suit Over BPA Claims
Florida-based National Beverage Corporation (NBC), the parent company of sparkling water brand La Croix, has been targeted over claims that president Nick Caporella falsely asserted that the product’s cans were free of the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) before it had been removed from packaging.
Albert Dewjeski, a former NBC vice president, is suing his former employer in New Jersey state court for wrongful termination, claiming that he was fired in retaliation one day after he raised his concerns to senior management that Caporella had prematurely declared all cans as BPA-free. According to the complaint, the cans were “a minimum 4-6 months away” from being replaced by BPA-free versions at the time.
NBC has disputed the claims.
“False statements were made in litigation brought by a former employee seeking to extract a monetary recovery from the company,” NBC responded in a statement. “We intend to vigorously defend our company and our brands against false claims brought by this disgruntled former employee.”
Attorneys for Dejewski are seeking damages due to lost salary and benefits, in addition to emotional distress. They are also arguing the plaintiff should be protected under New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act, a law that protects “whistleblowers” from retaliation.


text:
Recently, a local online service, Savvy Avenue, chose Rebuilding Together Seattle as their "Charity of the Month". $1 from each purchase made on Savvy Avenue's website during the month of June was donated to RTS to help further its programs!
A note from Savvy:
Savvy Avenue launched in Seattle with a mission to keep spending local and highlight savvy new experiences. They provide daily email offers for Seattle's local restaurants, spas and retailers. The offers, on average, provide consumers 50 to 75 percent off a specific item, service or purchase. Savvy Avenue strives to partner with the area’s local “hot spots,” to create exclusive deals or packages only available to Savvy Avenue subscribers.
Savvy Avenue is also helping local consumers support their favorite charities as they shop and purchase certificates. Each month, a portion of every purchase goes toward a featured local charity or nonprofit, which is selected based on subscriber feedback through focus groups, personal contact and social media sites.
For the month of June, Savvy Avenue partnered with Rebuilding Together Seattle! For every certificate purchased throughout our featured month, $1 went to Rebuilding Together Seattle to provide donated repair services for homeowners in need.
For more information or to subscribe to Savvy Avenue, visit www.SavvyAvenue.com. Follow the company and its daily deals on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SavvyAvenueSeattle, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/SavAveSeattle.
Thank You, Savvy Avenue!!


text:
Retailer of the Year 2020: Albertsons
Around the corridors of Albertsons’ corporate headquarters in Boise, Idaho, the supermarket chain’s Own Brands team is making quite a name for itself.
In fact, Albertsons’ Own Brands team, which sits in the Pleasanton, Calif.-based office, has four brands under its umbrella that have amassed $1 billion in sales each. In all, Albertsons Own Brands garnered $12.8 billion in sales in fiscal year 2019, and in a pandemic year, sales could juice that number in 2020.
In its first quarter earnings call, the company reported that its O Organics sales were up 31%, comparing the periods, and Open Nature was up 28%. The latter could be the latest brand to join that $1 billion club, taking a seat with Signature Select, Signature Cafe, O Organics and the 115-year-old brand Lucerne.
And, as phenomenal as the numbers and results have been last year and this year, it’s the people that are worth recognizing with a Retailer of the Year honor because the truth is that for the last few years Albertsons has been a shining example of private brand success — creating entire owned brands that go beyond the staid image of a private label offering.
Just ask its most veteran leader, Nancy Cota, who has been with Albertsons for 44 years, 21 of them in store brands. She’s not only witnessed this transformation to brand, but helped drive the evolution for 12 of the Albertsons 13 store brands.
“We are no longer private label products,” Cota said. “We are brands. And we’re proud of them, and we want our shoppers to think of them as their own brands,” Cota said. She currently operates as the company’s vice president of innovation and product management, with a focus on fresh areas on the perimeter.
To her, the beauty of Albertsons Own Brands is the excitement they bring to every store under the Albertsons umbrella. Banners include Albertsons, Safeway, Jewel Osco, Amigos, Vons, Randalls, ACME, Pavilions, Shaw’s, Star Market, Carrs, Tom Thumb, United Supermarkets, Albertsons Market, Andronico’s, Albertsons Market Street, Market Street, Haggen, United Express and Lucky.
Cota said Albertsons has the advantage to launch new products very quickly to stay on top of trends and do so without needing to spend millions of dollars on marketing. “We can be on top of what shoppers are looking for and bring that excitement."
Cota said it is a huge advantage for the team to recognize that everything starts with the shopper and that they can lean on internal teams for insights and not be dependent on external teams or suppliers.
“We really look at ourselves as truly a CPG inside of a $60 billion retailer,” Coester added.
Operationally, the team is structured with Coester, who has 25 years in at the company, at the helm since September 2019. Cota leads innovation and product management for fresh foods and Beto Galvan leads innovation and product management for the center store.
Jesser runs the finance, planning and analytics, a center of excellence within the company. Elizabeth Strydom leads the many technical and quality regulatory teams, another center of excellence.
Alice Chan oversees sales and marketing, designing the growth strategy, driving visibility of store brands in the banners, and influencing the shopper journey. Don Davidson is the point person for the strategic sourcing, using data and his relationships to find the most unique items and suppliers to delight shoppers.
In 2019, the Own Brands team launched 932 products and many more followed in 2020, including a line of 13 new ice cream flavors in July. The innovative flavors under its Signature Select brand ranged from a Cinnamon Churro Ice Cream with Honey Bun Swirl to a Lemon Cheesecake Ice Cream. A line of non-dairy flavors launched under its Open Nature brand, too.
Other notable innovative products from the year include the first caffeinated sparkling water under the Signature Select Soleil line, an offering of high-quality wines and Signature Reserve whiskey, and a host of Open Nature free-from meats, foods, oat milk, paper plates and housewares, bamboo toothbrushes and more.
In all, it is a huge arsenal of brands to manage, each with a different identity. However, by comparison to a true national brand, it is the Albertsons lifestyle brands that give it a huge advantage. These brands can be purchased across the store, starting with its Signature Select line that also has Signature Farms, Signature Cafe and premium Signature Reserve offshoots. O Organics and Open Nature are two other thriving lifestyle brands.
“A huge portion of our innovation every year falls under those two brands because they can’t be replicated,” Coester said. “They are lifestyle brands that drive full basket shops in our stores. We’re proud of that.”
Every brand in the Own Brands group has its own persona and target audience. Like a national brand, the teams layer in third party data from Mintel, Kantar and others to join their internal work, studying macro and micro trends, consumption trends and even conduct an annual survey of more than 2,000 households to get a temperature of what they’re looking for in products and to reconnect and ensure the brand positioning is spot on.
Brand and Supplier Love
The other brands under the team operate under a mix of strategies, as they are at varying levels of maturity. Safeway banners, for example, have had more time to build trust with shoppers and gain loyalty, whereas new banners have not.
The oldest brand in the bunch is Lucerne, a destination product that’s family focused, partnering with hundreds of dairy farms for more than 115 years. The brand covers milk, cheese, yogurt products and more. Waterfront Bistro is a newer brand with restaurant quality seafood that earlier this year earned a “Responsible Choice” logo update on its packaging because the products pass Albertsons’ strict Responsible Seafood Policy, a guarantee that the seafood has been responsibly sourced.
Primo Taglio provides high quality deli meats and cheeses. Plated provides a premium meal kit solution. Value Corner reaches the budget-conscious consumers, and debi lilly design is a proud floral shop offering in stores.
To make these brands happen, the Own Brands team works with more than 650 suppliers, and Coester joked that he has probably spoken to all of them in the last six months. Like many organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a huge strain on the supply chain and brought partnerships closer together.
Who’s Who on Albertsons’ Own Brands Team


text:
The round also saw participation from Temasek Holdings, Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), Harbourvest and India Quotient
Listen to this article
Mohalla Tech, the parent company behind Moj and ShareChat, has raised $266 million (around ₹1,995 crore) as part of its Series G funding round led by Alkeon Capital at a valuation of $3.7 billion, the company said in a statement.
The round also saw participation from Temasek Holdings, Moore Strategic Ventures (MSV), Harbourvest and India Quotient.
The company said the latest round of funding will help build capabilities in areas such as social and live commerce, growing its artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) team which now consist of over 100 people spread across the US, Europe and India.
This is Mohalla Tech’s third round of funding in 2021 after it turned unicorn in April with funding from Tiger Global. The company has raised $913 million so far this year and cumulatively has raised $1.77 billion in capital over eight funding rounds since inception.
Since January 2021, the company said it has grown to over 2,000 employees. With social and live commerce initiatives, the company aims to reach a target of $100 million ‘annualized creator earnings’ by the end of 2023.
“Moj and ShareChat have been growing at an explosive pace. Both our products have been leading the market with the highest monthly active user base, a very active creator set and amazing new partnerships to delight our community. This fresh funding will further strengthen our position and help us deliver immersive social experiences to our community," Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and Co-founder of Moj and ShareChat said.
ShareChat was founded in 2015 by Farid Ahsan, Ankush Sachdeva and Bhanu Pratap Singh. The firm has been focused on growing Moj as a platform after the ban on ByteDance backed popular short video app TikTok in India in June last year.
Moj has a user community of 160 million and a creator community of over 50 million. ShareChat has a user community of 180 million and a creator community of over 32 million, it said.
In the short video space, Mohalla Tech competes with VerSe Innovation, the parent company of short video app Josh and Dailyhunt, and InMobi subsidiary Glance.
In December last year, Glance raised $145 million (about ₹1,070 crore) from Google and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel’s investment firm Mithril Capital.
ShareChat has also been active in making acquisitions. It acquired meme-sharing platform Memer; hyperlocal startup Circle Internet; video production firm HPF Films; and social commerce platform Elanic.
Mint had first reported on October 12 that Sharechat was in talks to acquire Times Internet-owned MX TakaTak, citing sources.
The short-video category is set to become the second-biggest segment in terms of time spent, after internet giants such as Facebook and Google, as per consulting firm RedSeer. Monthly active users (MAUs) of the segment are expected to grow more than twice to reach 650 million users by the calendar year 2025, securing the second spot after television. The growth will be largely driven by the new 300 million internet users that will be added by 2025, according to RedSeer.


text:
It has a lot of interesting information. Three points that stuck out were:
- More than a quarter of consumers (27%) claimed to use a DVR at the end of Q1
2009, equivalent to 7 million homes, according to Ofcom research. This rose to
nearly a third of consumers (31%) in multichannel television homes. These figures
are a little lower than those from operator and sales data, which suggest that nearly 9
million DVRs had been sold in the UK at the end of Q1 2009.
- High-definition television gained traction over the past 12 months, as new HD
channels launched and more platforms developed their HD propositions. By the end
of the first quarter of 2009, 2.3 million homes (9%) had reception equipment capable
of accessing linear or on-demand HD content. Thirty-three per cent of UK homes
claimed to have HD-ready television sets at the end of 2008, according to its
- Online catch-up TV began to enter the mainstream in 2008, largely thanks to the
growing popularity of the BBC iPlayer. Twenty-three per cent of households claim to
watch programmes online, rising to 33% among 15-24s. But 10% of people aged 65+
reported that someone in their household watched catch-up TV online.
We should all thank Ofcom for continuing to publish these comprehensive reports that shed light on important trends.


text:
Fintech companies offering loans has led to an increase in greedy lending practices in Kenya, Central bank governor said on Tuesday, calling for the sector to be regulated.
Kenya as a pioneer of financial inclusion through its early adoption of a mobile money system that enables people to transfer cash and make payments on mobile phones without a bank account.
A huge rise of Fintech companies (financial technology companies) are using the same technology to extend credit to the banked and unbanked alike, burdening Kenyan lenders with high interest rates at the same time leaving regulators struggling to keep up.
From having little or no access to credit, many Kenyans even the ones who can’t afford these loans are now finding they can get loans in minutes through these Fintech companies.
“There’s an increase in let’s say Fintech companies that are taking advantage of our population,” Patrick Njoroge told executives in the digital financial services industry at a conference in Nairobi.
“In a sense what has happened is there is an opportunity by some predators and they are preying on our population.”
Since 2015, 2.7 million people in Kenya out of a population of around 45 million have been negatively listed on Kenya’s Credit Reference Bureau, according to a study by Microsave, a consultancy that advises lenders on sustainable financial services.
Kenya is thought to be a test case for the new mobile cash lending platforms. A number of companies involved, including U.S. fintech companies, have plans to expand in other cutting edge markets, meaning Kenya’s regulation will be closely watched.
Patrick Njoroge said he did not like the idea of his country being a “guinea pig” for new technology deployed by foreign fintech companies.
“What I think is worrisome is a lot of products that are coming in a sort of a fly-by-night operation and you only hear about it because somebody gets burned,” he said.
He said the risks to Kenyans showed there was a need for regulation in the booming mobile money lending sector.
A draft bill published by the finance ministry last week for review and comment by the public and industry says digital lenders will be licensed by a new Financial Markets Conduct Authority and lenders will be bound by any interest rate caps the Authority sets.
But it is not clear if fintech companies are subject to the current government cap on banks’ interest rates which has slowed private sector credit growth since it was introduced in 2016.


text:
News / Seko Logistics ready to hit acquisition trail in Europe and SE Asia
Seko Logistics is eyeing further expansion this year following its largest acquisition to date, Air-City ...
News / Digital road freight platform Ontruck buys Spanish broker Briver
Digital road freight platform Ontruck has acquired Briver, a Spanish digital freight broker, from Wtransnet. The acquisition will see Ontruck’s fleet capacity ...
News / Uber adds to its forces in grocery delivery battle and expands freight portal into Canada
Uber is turning up the heat in the online grocery delivery sector. Its acquisition of ...
News / Rhenus Logistics eyes more acquisitions to expand its global footprint
Germany’s Rhenus Logistics is targeting more acquisitions to expand its global warehousing and freight forwarding ...
News / Can forwarders trust FedEx in Latin America, as it buys a perishables specialist?
FedEx has raised eyebrows with its announcement that had signed an agreement to take over a ...
News / Maersk pushes logistics ambition, buying US customs house brokerage specialist
Maersk has taken another step towards offering a complete logistics service, as the lines between ...
- 1.ONE Apus stack collapse could be the largest container loss since MOL Comfort
- 2.Container shortages the biggest disrupter: where are all the empty boxes?
- 3.Forwarders see their cargo bumped as vaccine shipments take off
- 4.More box ships skip UK hub ports and forwarders urge EC to intervene
- 5.Container shortage crisis spreads to intra-Asia trades, driving prices higher
- 1. Nikolay on Volga-Dnepr AN-124s could be back in the air before the end of the year
- 2. Doug North on ONE Apus stack collapse could be the largest container loss since MOL Comfort
- 3. Troy R McCormack on ONE Apus stack collapse could be the largest container loss since MOL Comfort
- 4. John b on ONE Apus stack collapse could be the largest container loss since MOL Comfort
- 5. Petr Shirshin on ONE Apus stack collapse could be the largest container loss since MOL Comfort


text:
Sears, Roebuck and Co. is showing a new, subtler side with its coming advertising debut for its new apparel line.
The retailer on Sunday will start rolling out its biggest brand launch with advertising for its new Covington line of clothing for the whole family.
In stark contrast to previous efforts, Sears is relying on a more understated position: one that markets function and value over pizazz.
Nine years ago, when Sears reintroduced its apparel offering, it invited women customers to "come see the softer side of Sears" with a sexy, stylish campaign that created a tremendous amount of buzz. That campaign saw some early success but was eventually criticized for overpromising what Sears really offered.
Rarely did women who walked in looking for a Die-Hard come out with a "drop-dead" wardrobe, as one print ad claimed.
While the company has not revealed how much it is spending behind the new campaign, executives say it will be on par with what was spent on the "Softer Side": between $50 million and $75 million.
But that, executives say, is where the similarity ends. Instead, they stress the differences between the two campaigns; mainly that Covington is a brand for the whole family.
This time, Sears' core customer will have a reason to stop in and look at the merchandise.
The new advertising campaign is being developed by Young & Rubicam in Chicago.
"We knew we had to develop a distinctive brand voice for Covington," said David Selby, senior vice president of marketing for Sears. "We wanted this voice to be real. We think this advertising is very reflective of the way our customers lead their lives. This is not an insight or brand that has niche appeal. . . . We're positioning our soft lines [apparel] where we think we have the greatest relevance," he said.
The retailer will retain its overarching theme: "Sears. Where else?"
The marketing push behind the apparel line is just one part of Sears Chief Executive Alan Lacy's attempt to reclaim customers from discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target.
The company has also initiated an expensive overhaul of its more than 800 stores and surprised many on Wall Street with its $1.86 billion purchase of cataloger Lands' End.
But building a new brand from scratch will not be easy. The company does not have the luxury of a long build-up of loyalty that some other Sears brands, such as Craftsman and Kenmore, have enjoyed.
The company expects the Covington brand to bring in sales of $200 million to $400 million in the next year.
Sears will be playing in an ultracompetitive arena of apparel, where brands like Kohl's Sonomaand others have played for some time.
Analysts say Sears has a tough task in creating a new apparel brand from scratch.
"Building a new brand is always a difficult task, particularly when their own brand has suffered," said George Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants, based in San Marcos, Calif.
But Whalin believes it can be done. "They still have tremendous cachet with an enormous number of customers," he said.
Beginning Sept. 12, Sears will debut the TV part of its campaign during prime time in the new fall schedule, which is considered prime real estate for advertisers. At the same time, the ads will appear in publications such as Parents, Child, Good Housekeeping and O, as well as African-American and Hispanic publications.
Sears has struck a deal with TV Guide, under which models will wear Covington apparel in the publication's Sept. 14 issue.
While Sears may have changed its apparel advertising, the retailer still relies on humor to get its message across.
For example, in one of the TV spots, a man looks at a Covington shirt that he wore yesterday and says to himself: "It's an unwritten rule that you can't wear the same shirt two days in a row. But what if you're not going to see the same people on both days?" He then begins to take the shirt off the hanger.
"I just found a loophole in the unwritten rule," he says.
Said Sears marketing chief Selby: "At the end of the day, it's all about the merchandise."


text:
JAKARTADAILY.ID – Indonesian Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan conveyed that Indonesia's cultural diversity, local wisdom, and human resources can be the key to realizing Indonesia as the world's Muslim fashion center in 2024.
“A variety of traditional Indonesian fabrics with philosophical values are a source of creativity for designers and Indonesian Muslim fashion businesses that other countries do not have. This is the key to realizing Indonesia as the Mecca of the world's Muslim fashion in 2024," said Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan in Jakarta, Tuesday, August 23, 2022.
Speaking at the Road to Jakarta Muslim Fashion Week (JMFW) 2023, Fashion Show & Dialogue entitled "From Local Wisdom to Global Inspiration", Zulkifli Hasan, who is usually called Zulhas, said that the market potential for Muslim fashion and modest fashion is huge.
Also read: Trade Minister: Indonesia Wants to Be the Mecca of Muslim Fashion in 2024
According to him, there are two things that encourage Indonesia to have a bigger role in the Muslim fashion sector and modest fashion.
First, the world's Muslim population is equivalent to 25 percent of the world's total population. By 2060, the number is predicted to increase to 30 percent of the global population.
"Secondly, the purchasing power of modest fashion products has increased by 6.1 percent in the last four years and is expected to continue to increase in line with the growth in the number of consumers/population," said Zulhas.
Also read: Ministry of Trade to Host Largest Trade Expo in Indonesia on October 19-23, 2022 at BSD City in Tangerang
In addition to fashion shows, the Ministry of Trade also held a dialogue with the designers from the eight brands regarding the development of the Indonesian Muslim fashion industry.
In particular, Zulhas will invite business actors in the fashion sector, especially Indonesian Muslim fashion, to sit down together and discuss.
"The domestic market is important, but it's time to go global. The Ministry of Trade is ready to fully support efforts to make Indonesia the mecca for the world's Muslims," Zulhas said.
Also read: Indonesian Ministry of Trade Confiscates Steel Products Worth Rp 41.6 Billion that Does Not Meet SNI
Zulhas also invited stakeholders to work together and collaborate in the success of JMFW in order to realize Indonesia as the mecca of world Muslim fashion.
The Road to JMFW 2023 Fashion Show & Dialogue event took place at the Office of the Ministry of Trade featuring a fashion show of eight proud Indonesian Muslim fashion brands, namely Kami, Ria Miranda, IKYK, Ivan Gunawan, Nada Puspita, Wearing Klamby, Khanaan, and Buttonscarvesx Benang Jarum.
Utilizing E-Commerce to Enter Global Market, Ministry of Trade Holds Workshop for Business Actors
Indonesian Ministry of Trade Introduces MINYAKITA to Solve Cooking Oil Scarcity, Sold at Rp 14,000 per Liter


text:
Skoda India plans to launch a model below Fabia, in the price range of 3-5 lakhs by 2012.
Skoda also plans to launch a strip down version of Fabia by year end and Octavia replacement in the price range of 6-10 lakhs by next year. In October Skoda will launch the Yeti SUV, which was showcased at the 2010 Delhi auto expo.
SkodaAuto India Board Member and Director (Sales and Marketing) Thomas Kuehl, “We had announced to roll out one new model every year. As part of this strategy, we will enter the volume segment and will launch a small car in early 2012.”
Skoda a subsidiary of VW, will entered the small car market with Fabia and now plans a car which will compete with Hyundai’s i10, Chevrolet Beat and Maruti Ritz.
Image Source: AutoExpress


text:
Singapore gives lesson on economic zones
Russia has set aside $US 1.7 billion over the next ten years to create special economic zones (SEZ). But such zones need much more than just cash to be successful. More than anything, they need know-how. Singapore has been building first-rate SEZs for dec
The idea of special economic zones began in the island city-state of Singapore almost 50 years ago. And the idea soon became a reality. Now the once tiny fishing-village is the most business-friendly economy in the world.
Russia has chosen the Singaporean model of SEZs as a way to develop its economy. Using Singapore's expertise alongside Russia's vast natural and human resources, the government hopes to create a flourishing business environment.
“Our intention is to provide training places to help Russian officials become familiar with the concept of creating a competitive business environment in the economic zones. In this way they can attract much foreign direct investment,” said Singapore Minister of State Lee Yi Shyan.
The first zones launched across Russia have already attracted almost $US 300 million in private investment, which is to double by the year’s end. The state's ambitious goal is to attract $US 25 billion in the next ten years. For its part, the government will offer the necessary conditions for business development.
“The task of the state is to build roads, supply energy and communications, therefore providing conditions for business to construct industrial plants, labs and engineering centres. These companies earn profits and pay taxes, which makes the whole process profitable for us,” said Andrey Alpatov, Head of the Agency for Management of SEZs.
Russia-Singapore co-operation has already achieved results – a car manufacturing plant in Tatarstan's Elabuga and an innovation centre in Tomsk. Singapore companies have not yet invested in Russian economic zones, but the country’s minister said tourism and innovation are attractive targets.


text:
In this year's NBA Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat are locked in an intense battle, with the winner moving on to face either the San Antonio Spurs or the Oklahoma City Thunder, the two teams that are fighting it out for supremacy in the West. Whoever advances, hoops fans will be treated to an NBA Finals showcasing some of the best basketball talent on the planet.
Followers of the adidas brand have already received a special treat during these NBA Playoffs. To celebrate the release of its 9.5-ounce adizero Crazy Light 2, the company asked fans to hit up the adidas Facebook page and convey what lights them up. And the fans responded. Lots of them. So adidas set up to unveil a 20,000-foot projection outside Boston's TD Garden during Game 3, featuring the names of their fans in lights. The most engaged adidas users got the brightest lights. See the projection for yourself by watching the video below.
Source: adidas basketball
Photo Credit: Getty Images // Thinkstock


text:
CRISIS IN CHINA: ALL OF US WILL SUFFE FROM IT
25 October 2021
The energy crisis in China triggers global turmoil as it affects electronics manufacturing worldwide. Even such behemoths as Tesla and Apple are suffering from shortages.
Will the situation impact Ukraine? Ukrainian sinologists discussed that on MIM-TV.
Oleksii Koval, board member of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, columnist of Dzerkalo Tyzhnya (Mirror of the Week) publication:
There are several reasons for electricity shortages in the country that coincided. First of all, it is managed from the center. Cold and draught happened simultaneously and added up to the pressure. A hydro generation went down and thus overloaded nuclear generation. Regions with a high concentration of manufacturing facilities were overconsuming as they wanted to finish their assignments before the long festive period.
Yevhen Glembotdsky, head of networks equipment and security systems division at the DC Link Group.
“Every company seems to suffer from the situation whether it is logistics, lack of spare part, or higher prices. Electricity shortages triggered deficits all over the world. Ukraine will feel the scarcities in a couple of months. It is likely to make logistics longer, prices higher, and goods assortment poorer. Most of our colleagues in Ukraine are lucky to have some inventories in stock yet.”
Oleksii Kalynovskii, corporate notebooks and desktops manager for the Acer.
“China, the largest coal consumer has only a two-week reserve of coal. They cannot import from Australia, the largest coal importer because of sanctions. It is not only China that suffers from energy shortages. On the other hand, the Chinese have adopted an ambitious program of reducing CO emissions to zero by 2060. So, everyone seems to invest in green energy but it is not enough. Besides, energy prices for private consumers are fixed, whereas coal prices are growing. Thus, they are suffering from the problem typical for regulated economies. Europe is also facing problems as the gas prices soared. There are no winners so far. Many companies are relocating their manufacturing sites but it takes time. Trends-wise, energy-consuming industries will suffer. No wonder Netflix, for example, offers quicker and better returns than mining. When all different influences coincided, it turned out that traditional industries lack funding. The world will hardly be using coal in future but green energy is not efficient yet.”
Dmytro Romanenko, Ukraine and CIS business development manager for Kinston:
“Some media outlets hint that the Chinese government tries to reduce smog in Beijing for winter Olympics. Who is the winner? Nobody. The economy has become global nowadays, so shortages in China, the world’s manufacturing shop other countries will also be affected. Those who have a lot of inventories in stock or can launch local manufacturing in 3 – 5 years will have some advantages.”
Yuri Korotky, Ukrainian business development manager for Patriot memory.
«All seem to lose under circumstances. On the other hand, Ukraine won’t suffer a lot. Our economy is going through a kind of a down point and it can compensate for the shortages of Chinese supplies. Although the semiconductors business has global supply chains I don’t think we are facing some serious crisis in a short-term perspective.”


text:
The D.C. Council began the year by trying to pass a minimum wage hike intended to bring to Walmart to heel. It is ending the year by pushing a minimum wage increase that would likely benefit Walmart. Such are the tangled politics and economics of the minimum wage issue.
What changed is that the council, frustrated in its effort to pass a hike that singled out the retail giant and left most other businesses untouched, decided to instead push an across-the-board increase. That will likely happen.
At this point the real question is how much higher D.C.'s minimum will go. The council voted unanimously Dec. 3 to make it $11.50 an hour by 2016, up from its current $8.25. Mayor Vincent Gray has counter-proposed $10. The council must vote a second time before sending it to Gray, but the initial vote suggests it will be able to override any mayoral veto.
Either version would have the unintended effect of helping to insulate D.C.’s six new Walmarts from economic competition. The chain will be able to pay the new higher wage — in many cases, it already does — but local mom-and-pop stores may not.
That probably wasn’t the council’s intention when it introduced the Large Retailer Accountability Act in January. That would have required large retail businesses to pay at least $12.50 an hour.
Only a handful of businesses other than Walmart, like Macy's and Home Depot, qualified. All others would have been free to pay just $8.25, giving them a serious economic edge because their labor costs would be lower.
The bill was a response to Big labor-backed activist groups and other liberal organizations upset over nonunion Walmart's arrival in D.C. The main one was OUR DC, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.
Walmart threatened in September to stop construction on six planned stores if the bill passed. Alex Barron, Walmart’s D.C. regional general manager, called it “discriminatory” and said it “would create an uneven playing field and challenge the fiscal health of our planned D.C. stores.”
Mayor Gray agreed and vetoed the bill on Sept. 12. It wasn't an easy decision. His predecessor, Adrian Fenty, was defeated in large part because he had crossed the city's unions. To deflect criticism, Gray offered to back “a reasonable increase to the district's minimum wage for all workers,” opening the door to the current bill.
OUR DC spokesman Corey Taylor said, “$11.50 is a start, but we would like to see it go even higher.”
For Big Labor, higher minimum wages are good thing because they price cheaper nonunion labor out of the market.
“Anything that makes entry-level workers more expensive to hire makes employing union members relatively more affordable,” said Heritage Foundation expert James Sherk.
The council’s new bill may be ok with Walmart too, which does not appear to have opposed it. (A Walmart spokesman could not be reached for comment.)
It has, in fact, supported such efforts in the past. In 2006, Walmart’s then-CEO Lee Scott said: “There are a number of proposals before Congress. Though we do not intend to take a position on any single piece of legislation, we believe Congress should increase the minimum wage.”
In the case of the D.C. bill, Walmart often already does pay a $10 or $11.50 wage. According to Payscale.com, Walmart’s cashiers on average make between $7.50 and $10.77 and sales associates make between $7.63 and $11.83. Overall, its wages are just five percent below the retail industry average.
It is a different story for D.C.’s small neighborhood stores — which already face the daunting prospect of competing with Walmart. “Small businesses are the least able to absorb ... a dramatic increase in their labor costs,” notes the National Federation of Independent Business.
These are the very businesses the anti-Walmart crowd usually says it is trying to protect. Do they have a voice on the D.C. Council?


text:
In the 1980s, the company that would become Fox News began as a small advertising firm that served as a conduit for advertisers.
But the rise of Fox News in the 1990s, combined with the rapid expansion of the cable industry, led to a dramatic rise in advertising revenues.
That was an explosive growth, but not without a downside: The company became a media conglomeration that was not beholden to the owners of the newspapers it was advertising to.
Fox News was, at the time, an online company that operated a news network on the internet, and that company was not owned by Fox News itself.
In 1996, Fox News sold its digital arm, MediaOne, to Comcast for $4.5 billion, but the company was still largely owned by Rupert Murdoch.
This gave Fox News an additional reason to be interested in the media business, because it could continue to be a gatekeeper.
At the time of its acquisition by Comcast, the Murdoch-owned network was ranked No. 1 in the cable news market, and Fox News’s audience was growing faster than the rest of the network.
With this new media platform in its corner, Fox became a prime target for advertisers eager to target their ads to the news channel’s target audience.
“I remember sitting in the boardroom at Fox, and we were talking about the opportunity for us to take a lead in the digital space,” said former Fox News executive Ed Karpinski.
“And we were thinking, if we could get the advertisers who would pay us a premium to be willing to pay a premium for that digital space, we could then be a really strong competitor for those advertisers.”
Karpinksi recalled that the network had been able to negotiate a deal with a cable company that included a one-year, $100 million advertising campaign with Fox News, which was to target its audience in a specific demographic.
The ad campaign was part of an effort to attract advertisers to the Fox News network, which Karpinkis told me would be a significant step in the company’s future growth.
“The idea that they were going to do this in the middle of the night at the end of a year or two was pretty scary,” he said.
In fact, the ad campaign would not be the only one that Fox News would do.
The company would also use the network to sell its digital products, including its own video streaming service, FoxNow, which had been created with the help of the Murdochs’ digital company, News Corp. The campaign included the slogan “A Better News Network,” which would come to be known as the “Ayn Rand” slogan.
It was designed to appeal to Rand’s libertarian views, and it was aimed at the same demographics that Fox was targeting in the ad campaigns.
In addition to advertising, Fox also launched a digital operation called Fox TV, which it said was intended to build a digital TV network with a focus on news programming.
It also built out an ad unit, the Fox Digital, that would produce digital advertising targeted at different demographics.
“When you put all of that together, you get a really compelling story line, and people want to pay attention to that story,” Karpinskis said.
“There’s a lot more digital content out there than there ever was. “
In the future, we’re going do things that are a little more sophisticated,” he continued.
“There’s a lot more digital content out there than there ever was.
We’re not going to go to the print version of it.”
In 1997, Fox was able to buy an affiliate for its digital TV station for $3.3 million.
Fox was also able to sell a digital product, the WebTV, which became a key part of its advertising strategy.
The network was able take advantage of the Internet and its ability to deliver ads through the World Wide Web, a technology that was developed by Google, to reach a broader audience.
According to Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes, the webTV product was designed with the audience in mind.
“It’s a digital device that is being used in ways that we didn’t think it was going to work,” Ailes said.
Ailes also noted that the web TV was designed for different audiences, as opposed to targeting specific demographics.
In 2004, Fox acquired another digital product that it called Fox Digital TV, or FoxDN.
The new product was called the Fox Now.
It provided the audience with a mobile-friendly interface that was designed specifically for the web television.
The platform was designed so that users could easily search for content and find programs that they might like to watch.
It worked well, but it was still a relatively small piece of Fox’s advertising business.
A year later, in 2009, Fox purchased the entire content and video streaming company DigitalTV, based in Chicago.
“DigitalTV was designed in a way that the advertisers wanted it to be more like an on-