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When recreational marijuana becomes legal in October, so-called “craft growers” will be Maple Ridge’s best chance to cash in on the industry, according to the new B.C. Micro Licence Association.
James Walsh, president of the association and a Maple Ridge resident, said his group represents about 400 people and small businesses that want to join the legalized cannabis system. Many of these growers are in Maple Ridge, and they would like to start their businesses here.
Put in colloquial business terms, B.C. Bud could corner the market.
“Pot grown in Maple Ridge would likely be found on shelves across the country. It’s famous for its quality,” he said.
“This could be like French wine.”
A representative from the new association, Adam Temple, appeared at Maple Ridge council on June 26 to highlight the opportunities represented by the micro licences that will soon be allowed under the Cannabis Act. He asked to have a meeting for “cannabis college” with both the city’s agriculture and economic development committees. He said good city policy could resulte in a good economic impact with legalization in October.
While the group wants to talk about the potential financial opportunities, Maple Ridge isn’t ready quite yet, said Mayor Nicole Read.
Walsh is a consultant in the cannabis industry and said zoning bylaws are restrictive in Maple Ridge – and virtually all cities. They will prevent most of the small, craft producers from being able to set up.
“We see nothing but barriers,” said Walsh. “The entire industry here in B.C. has a problem.”
That will not automatically change with federal legalization. B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth has said cities will get the final say about where they want new cannabis operations.
At the same time, Farnworth said B.C. was the only province that advocated for small-scale producers to be included in new federal regulations. He told CBC that he pushed hard for it.
So micro licences will be included, and will allow for 200 square metres (2,100 square feet) of garden space. That doesn’t do much to threaten the three million square feet of growing space that cannabis giant Tweed will have under crop in its Langley and Delta greenhouses. However, it is enough space to grow a significant amount of product.
“That could be a business – and it will be for a lot of people,” predicted Walsh.
He said those micro licences will be important to the new recreational marijuana system, to eliminate the black market and to bring diversity to the marketplace. Otherwise, it will be dominated by large companies which are primarily based in Ontario and Quebec.
He said craft pot could carve a niche in the same way craft beer has.
“It’s flavour and it’s experience,” he said. “But you’ve got to have a product where there’s a lot more attention paid to quality.”
Typical “grey market” growers in B.C. have a medical licence that allows them to produce pot for two patients. They sells to those clients, and although their excess pot is not supposed to end up in dispensaries, that’s where it ends up, said Walsh.
Under the new legal framework, these growers will be able to participate legally in marijuana production. But they need cities to give them a place to set up shop – zoning changes and other regulation.
That’s why they want to deal with city hall.
“Stats Can confirms what most of us already know – that B.C. has been the single largest producer of unregulated cannabis in Canada,” Temple told city council.
With laws changing they would like to be part of the legal supply chain, and “the money and the economic benefit would stay within the communities.”
“Now that the federal government has placed significant importance on these small players, in order to achieve the goals of spreading economic benefit and eliminating the unregulated cannabis industry, the municipalities must turn their minds to the implementation of the Cannabis Act and allow propagators, cultivators, processors to set up their businesses in communities so that they can create local jobs and pay taxes and make a contribution to their communities.”
Coun. Craig Speirs said he is happy that recreational marijuana will become legal on Oct. 17.
“Right at the moment, B.C. kind of dominates the market, and small producers that are doing that,” he said.
“They are having huge economic impacts in the communities they live in.”
He said the money they create moves through the local economy and “that money goes around and around and around.”
Read asked Temple how small players will be able to stay in business against some of the giant producers ready to enter the market.
“How do the small players compete in the marketplace against the Tweeds of Canada. These facilities are massive. You can’t compete with the number plants …”
Temple answered that the micro producers will have to produce a high-quality crop.
“A very large portion of the consumers have become accustomed to this very high quality product that we produce in British Columbia already. That’s not the quality they are going to be getting from the large producers, and it’s going to be disappointing for a lot of the consumers.”
Read said later that the city is learning details about the coming changes as October nears.
“There’s a lot of information coming online as we get closer to legalization,” she said.
Read said the city’s focus will be on creating zoning.
“There is a lot of positioning in the industry – this is a really large business opportunity. In terms of economic development opportunities, for sure, cannabis is in a great space.”
Reached after the meeting, Speirs said estimates from police and BC Hydro have pegged the number of growers in Maple Ridge at 800.
Now they need to “go legal and pay taxes,” he said.
“We’ve got to make sure we don’t lose the best part of the industry, which is small producers creating unique products.
“I would hope the economic development office would sit down with these people and try to figure out the best way forward.”
City CAO Paul Gill said a staff report will be before council soon and will address business licensing in recreational marijuana.


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Check out our portfolio for some of our recently completed websites – both urban design firms – Vandewalle and Associates – a complete redesign of an existing website utilizing WordPress, and MDRoffers Consulting, a firm specializing both in urban design and financial consulting for communities – also using WordPress as the design base.
Are you having trouble deciding if WordPress will be the right solution for your next amazing site, or do you have a boss or client who’s refusing to accept WordPress as a viable platform? Sara Rosso gave a great intro to the WordPress Ecosystem at this year’s WordCamp San Francisco. She covers some of the heavy-hitters using WordPress, how big of an audience some of them are reaching, and why they decided to make the switch (if they did move from another platform), as well as how the overall community works.
From Jason Hiner at the TechRepublic – This is the way Google always wanted social networking to work, and this time the company may have pulled it off. Google’s previous social attempts have been unmitigated train wrecks, if we’re being completely honest. Open Social failed because Google couldn’t get Facebook and other social networks to buy into the idea of a shared social identity. Google Wave missed the target by not being useful enough to attract any users. Google Buzz freaked people out by naively overstepping its bounds on privacy.
So when Google unveiled its latest social experiment last week — called Google+ — I was extremely skeptical. Still, Facebook is so malignant in terms of privacy and such a mess to use and configure, that I was more than happy to give Google+ a try. I just expected it that it would be a speed-dating relationship like most of my product reviews and destined to last no more than a few weeks at the most.
Damn, was I wrong. After almost a week, I fully expect this Google+ thing to turn into a long-term relationship. I mean we’re not buying matching workout suits or anything yet, but this is definitely more than just a crush on the hot, new thing.
To start, Google+ is what Google calls a “field trial” — a fancy way to say that it’s still in beta. For now, it is open mostly to technology industry insiders and the press. Google reasoned that since reporters were going to be writing about Plus anyway, they might as well let them to kick the tires. Wise move.
Vic Gundotra, Google’s SVP of Social and the head guy in charge of Plus, said, ”We chose the initial seed very carefully. We wanted a lot of diversity, so we have people that represent over 42 of the world’s languages… We’re trying to really test the product, make sure that we meet people’s privacy expectations, that the systems are working, [and] that we can scale. We’ll slowly grow that initial seed as we’re ready.”
The other Google executive running the Plus project, Bradley Horowitz, added, ”Field trial is the right term. That’s not a euphemism. There’s a lot of rough edges in there and a lot of learning we have to do. The feedback we got in the first 24 hours is tremendous.”
Even with its rough edges and without the masses of humanity having access to Google+, the core experience is pretty powerful and it’s easy to see where Google is going with this.
As I wrote over the weekend while diving into Google+, the most attractive part is how easy it is to find, add, and organize your friends (I cited that as the main reason you won’t hate Google+). The friend issue is the heart of all social networks, although it’s so obvious that it’s often overlooked. In fact, Twitter still isn’t very good it, Facebook is a little better, but both of them now look like neophytes compared to the way Google+ does it.
The friend feature on Google+ is called “Circles” and it turns out to be an intuitive mashup of friending (from Facebook) and following (from Twitter). Circles are basically sets of friends that you can drag and drop into groups mirroring your existing social circles — Family & Friends, Colleagues, Local Techies, etc. — rather than just the one big lump of friends you have on Facebook that can result in moments of “worlds colliding” since you have to share all of your updates with all of your friends. On Google+ you can selectively send updates to different circles, and you can also quickly click between the news streams of your different circles.
You can also make circles for people you don’t necessarily know but are interested in following their updates (e.g. Tech Journalists, Famous Engineers, Web Celebrities, etc.). This is where Google+ echoes Twitter because people don’t have to follow you back in order for you to add them to one of your Circles. At that point you’ll see all of their public updates, and most of these folks make the majority of their updates public in order to be seen by more people (it’s the whole social media narcissism meme and it has already transplanted itself on Google Plus).
The real killer feature to Circles in Google+ is how easy it is to find and add friends. Everywhere you see a user’s name or avatar you can simply mouse over it, click “Add to Circles” and then select which circle to add them to. On Twitter, it took me about three years to find about 200 really interesting people (mostly in technology and the media) worth following. It took me less than three days to find that many on Google Plus. Of course, most of them are the same people, so Google+ has the advantage of speed by letting us quickly re-coagulate our existing social graph on the new service.
I’m not predicting Google+ will replace Facebook and/or Twitter. This will definitely not be a zero sum game. Facebook has the most to lose from Google Plus, but it’s going to be years before Aunt Jenny and your plumber show up on Google+ the way they recently showed up on Facebook (and it’s possible they never will). All three of these social networks — Facebook, Google+, and Twitter — will still be going strong three years from now. People will gravitate to them for different reasons. They’ll go to Twitter for news and to cyber-stalk celebraties. They’ll got Facebook for private networking, water cooler chats, and games.
So where will that leave Google+?
I’m glad you asked, because that’s the real point here (sorry to bury the lede). To start, Google+ is mostly going to be made up of digital influencers — technology executives, entrepreneurs, and professionals, as well as social media mavens and technophiles in the press. Don’t underestimate the power of this broad group. It’s the same group that has catapulted Twitter and Foursquare into mainstream consciousness in recent years. A large percentage of this group is already in the “initial seed” of Google+ users and they are the ones who have been raving about it for the past week. Look for a lot of them to decrease (but not eliminate) their Facebook usage and spend more time on Google Plus.
However, once you get past the technorati, then the story is going to get really interesting, because in the long run, Google+ is going to be less of a destination and more like the connective social tissue of the Web. I’m talking about social networking moving beyond a walled garden like Facebook or even a controlled ecosystem like Twitter.
Pieces of Google+ are likely to be decentralized with tentacles extending across the Web, the mobile Web, and various computer, smartphone and tablet platforms. In some ways, Facebook and Twitter have started doing this already. They’ve put share buttons and boxes on external sites. They’ve launched client apps for multiple platforms. Facebook has even allowed sites to use the Facebook platform as their engine for user comments. However, the ultimate goal for Facebook and Twitter is to drive users back to their sites where they can be monetized.
Google has a different goal. It needs all of this social data about what people like, how they are socially related, what content they share the most, what context they share it in, and more in order to power its search engine and better organize the world’s information. That means Google’s social motivations have little to do with driving people back to plus.google.com. It’s ultimately about enhancing search and not allowing Facebook to hoard so much of the world’s social data.
That’s why Google has already submitted it’s iOS app to the Apple App Store. That’s why it is already talking about opening up Google+ Hangouts (group video chat) to other video services and clients. It’s why Google is putting little +1s all across the Web and in its search results (even though they aren’t very well connected to Google+ yet). In order to satisfy its appetite for social data, Google ultimately needs Google+ to be ubiquitous across virtually all platforms — both in terms of accessing the service from devices but even more so in terms of micro-connections to the service from third party apps and sites.
Think of +1 integrated into mobile content apps, Q&A sites, blog comments, product reviews, music services like Pandora, etc. Now, imagine reading a product review and giving it +1 and then instantly seeing what all of the people in your “Tech Pros” circle have posted about that product — all without leaving the site you’re on. That’s where I see Google going with this and that’s where this could permanently change social networking on the Web into a much more integrated experience. And, if Google+ succeeds, it would likely force Facebook and Twitter to move in a similar direction.
Nevertheless, one big question here is how far will Google go with the open strategy? Can it avoid the temptation of giving Google+ pre-eminence to its internal platforms, such as Android, Chrome browser, Chrome OS, Gmail, and others? Will it build great apps and functionality for other platforms as well? For example, will it build a client for Windows Phone 7, even though Microsoft is its biggest rival in search? Will it work with Apple to make FaceTime (which has also promised open standards) compatible with Google+ Hangouts? Those are the kinds of litmus tests I’m going to be watching for.
Still, “Google+” is the perfect name for this because it’s ultimately an add-on and a force-multiplier to the existing Google experience, especially its search engine but also to the broader Web in general. Google+ will be a social layer on top the existing Web. At least that’s the vision. This time, Google might just pull it off.
So why is this important to you at all? We at Hansen Web Design track emerging social networking technologies carefully because down the road, it may be important to your business, just as Facebook and Twitter are now. Smart businesses know how to take advantage of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media to extend their reach and marketability.
Keep an eye on Google+. It will likely be a player. The exact role it plays in your business has yet to be determined, but watching it and understanding it will make it much easier later.
Hansen Web Design is proud to announce our latest client – Studio GlassWorks, LLC of Madison, WI. Studio GlassWorks designs and builds custom architectural decorative glass for residential, commercial and religious clients.
We’ll be designing and coding a custom WordPress website for them with a special set of plugins for site management, search engine optimization, and security; and we’ll also be setting up a series of specialized galleries for them to show off their products – they have a LOT of products and beautiful photos!
At a meeting in Singapore, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the Internet address system, has approved a vast expansion of the range of addresses available. The group wants to make it possible for Internet users to create their own extensions like .com, .net or .org.
So, get ready for Web sites that end with the names of cities or brands, like .berlin or .canon, to name just two entities that have expressed interest in the proposed system. Crafty entrepreneurs are busy thinking up sites like iwant.beer or whatsfor.dinner.
Icann envisions hundreds of new extensions, and that is just in the first round of applications. The overall range of Internet addresses on offer would increase exponentially.
Icann has been working on this for years. At a meeting in Paris three years ago, its board recommended going ahead. Since then, however, final authorization has been delayed several times, even as Icann has gone ahead with other expansions, including the use of non-Latin alphabets in domain names.
This time around, Peter Dengate Thrush, the chairman of Icann, said he thought the board would give the go-ahead. “We’re feeling reasonably confident at this stage because of the feedback we’ve been getting from all the players,” he said.
Such a vote would be a personal triumph for Mr. Dengate Thrush, given that the meeting in Singapore is set to be his last as chairman. Icann says the expansion would give Internet users vastly greater choice, leading to innovations in online marketing, among other things.
Yet critics of Icann question the need, saying existing suffixes provide plenty of choice. They say Icann wants to railroad the plan through without addressing their concerns.
Owners of corporate brands and other trademarks — who remember the cybersquatting that marred the early days of the Internet, when profiteers claimed brand names and then resold them to their owners — say the expansion would open the door to a new round of intellectual property abuses.
“It’s an unproven idea that has been handled very poorly from a project management standpoint,” said Alan C. Drewsen, executive director of the International Trademark Association.
The primary beneficiaries of the change, critics contend, will be the registrars that maintain Internet addresses; unlike Icann, a nonprofit organization, many registrars are commercial entities.
“The more domains they have out there, the more names they can register and the more money they take in,” said Josh Bourne, president of the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse, a Washington-based lobby group.
Icann plans safeguards to thwart cybersquatters and other opportunists. The price of the new extensions has been set at a steep $185,000, for example, with a further $25,000 annual fee to maintain them. Trademark owners would be allowed to claim their names for use in addresses during “sunrise” periods following the rollout. These protections have been strengthened since the proposal was outlined.
“My expectation is that people will look at this in a fairly commercial way,” Mr. Dengate Thrush said. “My hope is that they aren’t going to waste a lot of time and money applying for names that don’t stand a chance.”
Mr. Dengate Thrush acknowledged that there were still unresolved issues around implementation. But he said these could be resolved after a vote to go ahead. Icann plans a four-month communication period before applications for addresses will be accepted.
During that time, trademark owners will have to wrestle with some big questions. Should they apply for the new suffixes? Should they register their names for use with other new extensions? Or should they do neither? A lot of money hangs on the decisions.
Mei-lan Stark, senior vice president for intellectual property at News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment Group, recently told a U.S. congressional committee that the change could cost her company at least $12 million in the initial stages alone.
That estimate was based on the cost of registering 300 names in an initial round of 400 new address extensions, at a cost of $100 each, she said. The cost, and related legal bills, would rise as the list of suffixes grew, Ms. Stark added.
Planning is complicated by the fact that brand owners do not know how consumers will react. Icann has already been adding suffixes one by one, in advance of the big bang it envisions. Most recently, it approved .xxx for sexually explicit sites. With a few exceptions, however, marketers prefer .com over other extensions, like .web, .net or suffixes that represent a specific country.
The .xxx extension appears to have had little support from the pornography industry, and its approval prompted dismay in political capitals around the world, including Washington and Brussels. The government advisory council, which monitors Icann and its independent board, had previously voiced concerns.
Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission, wrote in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke of the United States that the introduction of .xxx could create unexpected consequences, perhaps prompting censorship-minded governments to block entire portions of the Internet.
In a response, Lawrence E. Strickling, an assistant commerce secretary who is responsible for Internet policy, agreed, but added that the Obama administration did not think it was “in the long-term best interest of the United States or the global Internet community for us unilaterally to reverse the decision.”
The fact that Icann has ruffled feathers in Brussels and Washington, among other capitals, is not necessarily a bad thing. At a time when governments all over the world are taking a greater interest in what happens in the digital world, the Internet needs an independent guardian and Icann is one of several groups that play an important role in this regard. But it may have to pick its fights carefully.
Ms. Kroes wrote in an e-mail that she continued to support the “multistakeholder” approach to Internet governance, as embodied by Icann. But she said that the board of the organization should be “extremely sensitive to the views of public authorities” as it proceeded with projects like the expansion of Internet addresses.
“Overall, I am concerned that certain public policy issues, which are of great importance to the economic and social well-being of European citizens and businesses, have not been taken into consideration by the Icann board as much as they would deserve,” she said in the e-mail, sent via a spokesman.
Source: New York Times
Hansen Web Design is happy to announce our most recent client – Northern Capital Management of Madison, Wisconsin. Northern Capital Management is a locally owned investment advising firm serving Madison’s individual and institutional investors since 1979. They are having us redesign their site utilizing the latest cascading style sheet technology for cross-browser compatibility and fast loading. We will also be working with them to perform focused search engine optimization for their target investors.
We will be developing WordPress sites for both of these companies in order to target their customer base with specific search engine optimization (SEO) while at the same time allowing the client full flexibility in the management of these two websites.
Hansen Web Design is proud to announce the addition of our newest client, Southwest Surveying and Associates, of Palmyra, Wisconsin. Southwest Surveying & Associates, Inc. is a land surveying firm providing services to Dodge, Jefferson, Waukesha, Walworth and Rock counties. We will be designing a new WordPress platform site for them to highlight their services and concentrate on search engine optimization.
At Hansen Web Design we monitor and test web sites in multiple browsers every day, so we need to keep track of what’s happening with the various browsers out there – how they handle basic HTML code, CSS, operating systems – anything that will affect the look and feel of your website. It’s important that you keep track too – why? Not just for the reasons we track them, but for another very important reason – speed. We want your websites to load fast and design them that way to the best of our ability, but you can help things along by using the latest and “right” browser for your needs.
Tom’s Hardware has been tracking the latest round of the browser wars and has completed a superb review of the latest versions of Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, FireFox and Safari. The results might surprise you!

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TAMPA – Despite popular misconceptions, the average age of someone with a MySpace.com Web page is not 12. It is 31, a demographically attractive age to automotive marketers.
“This is your market,” Larry Bruce, president of marketing firm AIMData, tells dealers at the Ward’s Automotive Spring Training Conference presented by Autobytel here.
More and more marketers are looking to online social networking sites as places to advertise, especially to targeted audiences.
There are about 240 such sites, including MySpace, MyFace, FriendWise, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, Facebook, Orkut and Classmates. Individual users build their own pages filled with personal information and profiles, but prime space is reserved for ads.
The growth of social networking has been phenomenal. Worldwide, there are 122 million users, 70 million of them in the U.S.
“Those numbers didn’t exist four-five years ago,” says Michael Barrett, executive vice president of Fox Interactive Media, a News Corp. division that runs MySpace.
Some executives at Fox Interactive were skeptical when MySpace was acquired in 2005, he says. “It was first thought of as a wasteland of teens.”
But doubts soon disappeared. “There has been huge traction and a huge interest by marketers,” Barrett says. “It’s not just for kids. Moms and dads are in their own network. You can’t reach 70 million people without spanning demographics.”
Social networkers check out each other’s profiles, upload photos, read comments and post them. Marketers hope they also are checking out adjacent ads.
“The information they are posting creates fertile territory for marketing,” Barrett says.
For instance, social networks of vehicle enthusiasts are a no-brainer for ads from auto makers, virtually all of which have a presence on MySpace. So do many dealers, with varying degrees of success.
“There are thousands of dealers involved in social networks, but it is unorganized for the most part and not terribly well done after the initial effort,” Barrett says.
He emphasizes the need for fresh content. “You are not doing social networking if you are not alive and active.”
Bruce recommends dealerships set up social-network Web pages as a way to garner leads.
One way for a car dealership to draw people to its own social-network site is to offer a section where consumers rate the store, Bruce says. That presumes customer-satisfaction levels are high to avoid getting rapped by discontents.
“People are talking about their dealership purchase experiences on places like MySpace and FaceBook,” says Famous Rhodes, director-parts and accessories for eBay Motors.
He predicts such websites will play a bigger role in vehicle-sales and dealership referrals.


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Charlotte Marchant shares her groundbreaking new research into the Jim Crow-style discrimination faced by Black American GIs in Cornwall during World War Two.
We’re partnering with Bloomsbury Children’s Publishing to promote Fablehouse, a new children’s book based on British mixed race history
A ‘full circle moment’ as our Associate Creative Director explores historical fashion with other dress historians
It’s one year since the launch of our exhibition exploring Brent’s multiracial history through fashion, art and photography.
Our visit to Bodmin Keep Army Museum’s Study Day, focusing on the impact and experiences of Black American GIs in 1940s’ Cornwall.
Our Creative Director showcases fashion memories from our Brent-based project at the ADH’s annual ‘new research conference’ in April 2023.
The Mixed Museum is participating in two events run by Bodmin Keep Army Museum exploring the Black GI presence in Cornwall
We are chosen to be part of the cohort participating in the Museum Association’s Mindsets + Missions programme.


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Has Gap Inc. finally turned itself around?
He didn’t exactly say that, but in his most upbeat conference call since joining Gap Inc. in 2007, chairman and chief executive officer Glenn Murphy said Gap’s second quarter was marked by “a lot of bright spots” and fueled by having the right styles, capitalizing on color, focusing on fit, and making “targeted investments in key categories where we wanted to dominate” including babyGap, denim, and suits and woven shirts at Banana Republic.
Gap’s net income for the second quarter rose 29 percent to $243 million, from $189 million in the year ago quarter. Diluted earnings per share increased 40 percent to 49 cents compared with 35 cents last year.
Net sales for the second quarter, which ended July 28, increased 6 percent to $3.58 billion compared with $3.39 billion for the year-ago quarter. Comparable-store sales increased 4 percent.
“Customers responded well to our product offerings across our brands, driving a healthy increase in sales and earnings per share during the quarter,” said Murphy, who for years has drawn skepticism from Wall Street and retail analysts about his ability to revive Gap, considering his background running drug stores in Canada and not as a fashion merchant.
“Our continued focus on product and store execution is helping to drive positive momentum and we’re committed to sustaining solid performance for the remainder of the year,” he said.
Given the second-quarter performance, the company raised its estimate for fiscal year 2012 diluted EPS to be in the range of $1.95 to $2.00, compared with $1.56 in fiscal year 2011.
While the signs point to a turnaround, Murphy was cautious, stating, “Sustained performance is what matters. Everybody is working hard to make sure we maintain the momentum in the back half.”
In North America, Gap and Banana Republic each had a 7 percent comp-store sales gain, while Old Navy was up 3 percent, making for a 4 percent comp overall. Direct sales rose 24 percent.
The only real concerns Murphy expressed were that traffic overall was negative, with the outlets and Old Navy experiencing better traffic than the Gap and Banana Republic, and that comparable-store sales abroad, with the difficult European economy, were negative 5 percent. But Murphy said he likes how Gap Inc. stores are concentrated in London, Paris, Milan and Rome, and positioned properly for when the continent rebounds.
Gap was able to overcome the traffic trends through higher average unit retail prices and better conversion rates driving the quarter. He added that a faster pipeline, getting some early reads on products through social media and forms of crowd sourcing, also helped the business.
In other highlights, Athleta opened 11 stores and will have 25 stores by yearend. Old Navy opened a store in Tokyo, its first unit outside North America, and also had an impressive response, setting the stage for a Japan rollout.
Murphy suggested Old Navy may be in for some major changes when its new president Stefan Larsson, formerly with H&M, starts in October. “He is coming in with a very strong perspective and position when it comes to product,” conceptually as well as from a design and merchandising standpoint, Murphy said.


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Worker accuses beer wholesaler of overtime violations
A Sussex-based beer wholesaler is being sued by an employee who claims the company has failed to comply with state and federal overtime laws.
Beer Capitol Distributing Inc. is paying its beer merchandisers on a salaried basis, even though the employees have jobs that are not exempt from overtime laws, says the suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
The suit, filed by Matthew Tobin, is seeking class action status for around 60 Beer Capitol employees. The company, which buys beer from MillerCoors LLC and other brewers and then sells it to taverns, supermarkets and other retailers, has more than 350 employees.
A Beer Capitol executive didn't return a call seeking comment. The suit also names as defendants company owners Aldo Madrigrano, Beer Capitol chief executive officer; Mike Merriman, company president; and Ronald Fowler, a director.
Tobin and other beer merchandisers are not delivery truck drivers, the suit said.
Rather, they travel to customers' locations and place beer that has already been delivered on the sales floor and place sales materials. Merchandisers stock shelves; assemble and move displays; hang signs or other ads; rotate beer to make sure older packages are sold first; and remove beer that is too old to sell.
Beer Capitol began paying its merchandisers salaries, instead of hourly wages, after buying another wholesaler, Miller Brands-Milwaukee LLC, in 2008, the suit said. At that time, Beer Capitol stopped paying its merchandisers overtime.
Beer Capitol Distributing merged with Beer Capitol Distributing-Lake Country LLC, formerly known as W.O.W. Distributing Co., in September 2010. It distributes nearly 400 brands of beer in southeastern Wisconsin, and is the state's largest beer wholesaler.
Tobin has worked as a merchandiser since March 2004, and was originally employed by Miller Brands.
Beer Capitol's total liability on unpaid overtime for Tobin and the other employees could exceed $700,000, said Tobin's attorney, Larry Johnson.
Recent national business updates from the Associated Press


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Fashion and lifestyle retailer Oliver Bonas will launch a catalogue in May.
The catalogue will be used to drive brand awareness and, crucially, online sales, which currently account for just over 10% of the total.
Oliver Bonas replatformed its website last year and has invested heavily in its photography.
There will be two catalogues this year, one for summer and one at Christmas.
“We may do more if it works well,” said Oliver Bonas founder and chief executive Olly Tress. “We’re fairly well set up for it. It is a lot of work but the system is there.”
Oliver Bonas produced a catalogue in the 1990s, but Tress said he believes the format is still relevant: “Catalogues have evolved in terms of their content – they’re more brand led and aspirational than a list of products, colours, codes and prices – it’s more to inspire you to go to the website.”
The retailer also plans to open around 10 stores in the UK this year, which will bring its total number to 61.
It will launch its first international websites this year, but it has yet to confirm in which markets. It has no plans to open stores overseas, although Tress said he would be open to a franchise partnership.


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Echo Global Logistics PT Raised to $28.00 at FBR Capital Markets (ECHO)
Equities researchers at FBR Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Echo Global Logistics (NASDAQ:ECHO) from $22.00 to $28.00 in a research report issued on Friday. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. FBR Capital Markets’ target price points to a potential upside of 28.00% from the stock’s previous close.
In other Echo Global Logistics news, Director Bradley A. Keywell sold 35,000 shares of Echo Global Logistics stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.90, for a total value of $696,500.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.
Shares of Echo Global Logistics (NASDAQ:ECHO) opened at 21.875 on Friday. Echo Global Logistics has a 52-week low of $15.54 and a 52-week high of $22.65. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $19.39 and a 200-day moving average of $18.52. The company has a market cap of $513.8 million and a P/E ratio of 35.02.
Echo Global Logistics (NASDAQ:ECHO) last released its earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $305.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $276.73 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.17 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 36.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Echo Global Logistics will post $0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Separately, analysts at Credit Suisse reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Echo Global Logistics in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. They now have a $20.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $19.00. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.78.
Echo Global Logistics, Inc (NASDAQ:ECHO) is a provider of technology enabled transportation and supply chain management services.
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Only select phones will have this luxury
A major announcement on the HTC facebook page just stated that as promised, it is planning on rolling out unlocked bootloaders for the global version of the HTC sensation in August.
This would be a two step process, as reported in engadget
, and will see; first, the pushing of a maintenance release to the phones and second, releasing an unlock tool. More good news on this front is that HTC has no intentions of stopping there and seems to have found new love for the developer community. They plan to ” continue rolling out the unlocking capability over time to other devices as maintenance releases and new shipments”
No word on exactly what devices will feature the unlocked bootloaders but this is good news none-the-less


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The Chai Box recalled months of Chai Concentrate mixes after learning of “potential under-processing which may lead to Clostridium botulinum contamination,” The Chai Box said in its FDA-posted recall notice.
Clostridium botulinum is the bacteria that can lead to botulism, “a rare but serious illness caused by a toxin that attacks the body’s nerves and causes difficulty breathing, muscle paralysis, and even death,” as described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture discovered the potential problem.
This recall covers 16-ounce and 64-ounce bottles of The Chai Box’s Chai Concentrate and Unsweetened Chai Concentrate with best by dates from 9/22/2022 to 3/16/2023.
If you have any of these, return them to the store of purchase for a full refund or at least throw them out.
If you have questions, call The Chai Box at 844-242-4269, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern time or email email@example.com.


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Rupee extends losses; oil demand hurts
Reuters Market Eye - The rupee extends losses to 54.83/84 versus its previous close of 54.6150/6250 on the back of dollar demand from oil firms, along with some short-covering.
Weakness in regional and local shares also aiding sentiment for the dollar.
Dealers expect exporters to step in to sell the greenback around 54.90-95 levels, preventing a sharper rise beyond that.
(Reporting by Swati Bhat)
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Eavesdropping on someone else’s smartphone screen is certainly an activity we experience almost every day whether it’s on public transportation or just about any public space. Consequently, various apps have been devised which are specifically designed to prevent them. However, none of them have been effective enough to truly put an end to it.
As a result, two Google researchers — Hee Jung Ryu and Florian Schroff took up a project which they named “electronic screen protector”. It essentially makes use of a Google Pixel’s front-facing camera and an eye-detecting artificially intelligent technology that can evaluate whether more than one person is staring at the screen. The Googlers will be presenting the demo at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Long Beach, California.
Once it detects a suspicious intruder, the framework minimizes the app you were using and launches a camera view highlighting the person with a Snapchat-esque vomit rainbow. The team also claims, unlike other platforms, their implementation is capable of functioning in different sets of lighting conditions and poses. Furthermore, Ryu and Schroff are claiming a response rate of merely 2 milliseconds which is quite astonishing if true. The unlisted public video (embedded at the end) they shared shows the user’s messaging window close as soon as the perpetrator tries to read the chat.
Since the technology requires an always active camera access, the Googlers decided to process the data locally instead of sharing it with the company’s cloud servers. This should eliminate all the privacy concerns people might have. Of course, even if Google approves the project for Android, it will be a while before it will be made available to everyone. Perhaps, next year with the launch of Android P.


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With the PlayStation Now open beta going live tomorrow, July 31, in the United States and Canada for PlayStation 4 owners, Sony’s been relatively quiet on details.
To try to get some information, IGN caught up with PlayStation Now Senior Director Jack Buser, who revealed that there are 50 companies signed up to bring their games to PlayStation Now, with 100 PS3 games available to play at open beta launch, and more titles will be added over time.
As for the potential of adding a Netflix-esque subscription option to PlayStation Now (instead of just renting game-by-game), Buser said:
We’re working diligently to bring a subscription option to gamers to compliment our rental offering for PlayStation Now. We believe that offering both of these options would provide gamers the freedom to discover and play games in ways that weren’t before possible.
Despite them working diligently, Buser said he doesn’t know when a subscription option might be available, and nothing is confirmed as of yet.
When it comes to the pricing structure of PlayStation Now right now, Buser said that they’ll continue to look at feedback throughout the beta, some games will be offered at a rental price as low as $1.99, and a “rent-to-buy” option is being looked at.
Are you going to try out the PlayStation Now open beta when it starts tomorrow?


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Shares of the parent of luxury car maker - Tata Motors - rose as much as 1.53 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 297.60 after its revenue in June quarter jumped as much as 108 per cent to Rs 66,406 from Rs 31,983 crore in the same quarter last year. Tata Motors loss in April-June period narrowed to Rs 4,451 crore from Rs 8,438 crore in the year ago period
During the quarter retail sales of Jaguar Land Rover came in at 124,537 vehicles, up 68.1 per cent on an annual basis. In domestic market, Tata Motors sales jumped 340 per cent to 95,200 units.
Meanwhile, the company has reiterated that global chip shortages, uncertainty due to the spread of coronavirus variants and commodity inflation would impact business in the short term.
"Demand remains strong for JLR and India PV, while CV demand is showing gradual improvement. In this dynamic business environment, we anticipate that semiconductor issues, commodity inflation and pandemic uncertainty will have an impact in the short term. We expect the performance to improve progressively from H2 as supply chain and pandemic situation improves," Tata Motors said in a stock exchange filing post market hours on Monday.
"The successful implementation of a comprehensive business agility plan enabled us to manage lockdowns effectively and also deliver competitive growth as markets reopened. In the near term, we remain focused on fulfilling customer demands while driving all levers of the business to mitigate the unprecedented commodity inflation," Girish Wagh, Executive Director at Tata Motors said in a statement.
As of 10:58 am, Tata Motors shares traded 0.61 per cent higher at Rs 295, outperforming the Sensex which was trading on a flat note.


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The MTN Group on Thursday said it has been named the most valuable African brand in the Brand Finance Africa 150 ranking in 2020.
Its Group Executive, Corporate Affairs, Nompilo Morafo, said the award was ascribed a brand value of 3.3 billion dollars to the group.
Brand value is the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licencing the brand in the open marker.
In its survey by Brand Finance, it said, “Over the last year, Africa’s largest mobile operator has celebrated solid profits and impressive subscriber growth.”
Morafo said the survey assessed the impact of COVID-19 on the enterprise value of all brands compared to their values on Jan. 1.
It categorised the telecommunications sector as ‘limited impact’, which it said meant “minimal brand value loss or potential brand value growth”.
This was due to the increasingly important role that mobile operators had played in keeping people connected in the time of the pandemic.
He, however, said in July, Brand Finance also named MTN Group the most valuable South African brand.
Morafo said a result of the group’s focussed was on improving the customer’s experience for subscribers.
The company’s group executive said it was uniting 19, 000 employees around a shared belief, saying that everyone deserved the benefits of a modern connected life.
Edited By: Olagoke Olatoye
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WASHINGTON — Although Black Friday was heavily promotional, retailers apparently shied away from steep discounts earlier in November, driving up women's apparel a seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent, the largest such increase since January.
The price bump and increases in the gasoline and transportation areas boosted the price of all goods and services 0.8 percent last month compared with 0.3 percent in October. That overall rise was the largest since Hurricane Katrina helped push up prices 1.2 percent in September 2005, according to the Labor Department Consumer Price Index released Friday.
Though the so-called core prices, excluding volatile food and energy goods, rose 0.3 percent, that was still more than the 0.2 percent expected by economists and enough to heighten inflation concerns. The increase broke a five-month run of 0.2 percent increases in core prices.
"It's possible that retailers weren't discounting as much leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday," said Jessica Penvose, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "There weren't as many items that were being deeply discounted."
Discounts of more than 50 percent dropped to 1.6 percent of the sample taken for the monthly survey, from 2.3 percent a year earlier, which Penvose said was statistically significant. Off-pricers and discounters seemed to fare the best when it came to holding the pricing line for the month.
"Those kinds of stores in our sample had a larger percent average increase than they usually do," she said.
However, signs of higher prices, if they persist, could be enough to keep policy makers on the sidelines when it comes to stimulating economic growth. The Federal Reserve Board cut its benchmark federal funds interest rate a quarter point to 4.25 percent last week, but might hesitant on further adjustments if serious inflation seems to be taking hold. That move disappointed investors who were looking for a half-point reduction to help stem the economic slowdown.
Lower interest rates are intended to spur the economy by making it cheaper to borrow money for consumers and businesses. James Glassman, economist at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., said one month of higher-than-anticipated inflation was not a concern.
"You're supposed to access inflation based relative to the shocks that are going on in the oil markets and in the currency markets," Glassman said, referring to high oil prices and the weakening dollar. "It's pretty tame."Despite last month's boost in women's prices, the sector trend is generally deflationary, as retail consolidation heightens competition and the global supply chain becomes more efficient. Women's apparel prices last month were 1.6 percent below a year earlier and down 3.4 percent from five years ago.
Suit and separates prices rose 1 percent compared with October and were down 2.2 percent from a year earlier. Dress prices increased 2.3 percent for the month, but fell 2.6 percent for the year.
@tradesy is turning the concept of a showroom upside down with its new space in Santa Monica. Here, the company plans to hold events, art exhibits and a showcase rare fashion pieces like this Louis Vuitton boxing set. Get all the details on Tradesy’s first showroom on WWD.com. #wwdnews
Spotted last night at the @erdem x @hm launch event: Kate Bosworth, Rashida Jones, Kirsten Dunst and Selma Blair. The party, which took place in LA, also marked the opening of their pop-up shop. “I was interested in creating a collection that wasn’t in any way disposable. It was about pieces you’d create and keep forever, things that have a permanence to it,” designer Erdem Moralioglu said. #wwdeye (📷: Katie Jones)
Renee Zellweger in yellow in 2001 and again in 2017. Chosen as one of the 12 @pantone Leading Spring Colors (and dubbed “Meadowlark”), it only makes sense that the bright hue stands the test of time and is making a resurgence this season, seen already on stars like @blakelively and @gigihadid. (📷: Donato Sardello & @rexfeatures) #wwdfashion #tbt
Dior’s 70th anniversary celebration continues with a new exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. “Christian Dior,” which is scheduled to run through March 18, takes a look at the founders tenure from 1947 to 1057 and feature 40 designs. Pictured here is an evening gown from the Ailée, fall 1948-49 haute couture collection. #wwdfashion (📷: Brian Boyle)
As one of the most recognizable models in the world, Christy Turlington Burns has an insider’s view of the fashion industry and the allegations of sexual harassment swirling around it. “I can say that harassment and mistreatment have always been widely known and tolerated in the industry. The industry is surrounded by predators who thrive on the constant rejection and loneliness so many of us have experiences at some point in our careers,” Turlington told WWD, along with her suggestions for how the modeling world should protect younger women and men. Read more on WWD.com. Link in bio. (📷: Tony Palmieri) #wwdnews
@asics America has tapped a new brand ambassador: famed DJ/record producer @steveaoki. This initiative is intended to set the tone for the new brand identity and philosophy and will include partnerships with influencers and in-store and off-line activations that will continue into next year. This is Asics’ most significant marketing effort in two decades, and is expected to attract younger consumers to the brand. #wwdfashion
24-year-old Jean Prounis is redefining the rules of jewelry. Formerly a studio assistant to Jemima Kirke and a design apprentice at Ghuran, she focuses on handcrafted subtleties and ancient goldsmithing techniques. “There was a really sterile feel in the environment and I wanted to have jewelry with character that shapes how you wear it everyday,” Prounis said. Each piece is hand made in New York, either by Prounis or three other jewelers in the district. #wwdfashion
“These collections continue to build on that vision, empowering differently abled adults to express themselves through fashion,” said @tommyhilfiger of his line of adaptive apparel, which launches today. The line consists of 37 men’s and 34 women’s styles based upon the pieces from the spring Tommy Hilfiger sportswear collection. #wwdnews


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New Straits Times
MALAYSIA’S total trade in January rose 14.9 per cent to RM156.01 billion year-on-year while exports increased 17.9 per cent to RM82.86 billion, beating analysts’ expectations.
MALAYSIA’S total trade jumped 14.9 per cent to RM156.01 billion year-on-year in January with exports growing at a faster pace, beating analysts’ expectation.
Exports posted stronger growth than imports in the month, expanding 17.9 per cent to RM82.86 billion, said International Trade and Industry Ministry.
This was the highest export value ever recorded for January, surpassing the RM70.27 billion registered in January last year.
Analysts, who had expected average export growth of 13 per cent, said exports had made a strong comeback after falling to single-digit growth in December last year.
MIDF Research expects global trade activities in the first three months to remain on an upbeat momentum, albeit at a moderating rate, amid unfavourable base effects.
“We forecast export growth to average 9.3 per cent this year. Underpinned by continuous buoyant momentum in global trade activities, further recovery in commodities prices and receding protectionism threat.”
The ministry said imports had expanded 11.6 per cent to RM73.15 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of RM9.71 billion.
Malaysia recorded higher trade with Asean, Hong Kong, the European Union (EU), China, India, Taiwan and South Korea, said the ministry.
Manufactured goods shipments, which accounted for 82.5 per cent of Malaysia’s total exports, surged 20.4 per cent yearon-year.
The main contributor to the increase was the exports of electrical and electronics (E&E) products, which rose 27.1 per cent.
Mining and agriculture goods exports went up 8.5 and 6.2 per cent, respectively.
Malaysia’s trade with China grew 8.5 per cent year-on-year to RM25.33 billion.
Exports to China surged 17.9 per cent to RM10.1 billion, driven by E&E products, chemicals and chemical products as well as optical and scientific equipment exports.
Malaysia’s imports from China rose 3.1 per cent to RM15.23 billion, supported by E&E products, machinery, equipment and parts as well as manufacture of metal.
Trade with Asean expanded 16.2 per cent year-on-year to RM42.98 billion, with exports to the region up 15.6 per cent.
Malaysia’s trade with the EU jumped 20.5 per cent to RM15.52 billion, with exports to the region growing 13.6 per cent.
Trade with the US remained firm with growth of four per cent to RM12.94 billion. Exports rose 8.7 per cent to RM7.27 billion, underpinned mainly by higher exports of manufactured goods.


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Amazon (AMZN) might be poised to make the ultimate about-face in the annals of the Internet.
The online retailing giant is reportedly considering opening hundreds of physical bookstores, according to comments made on Tuesday by General Growth Properties CEO Sandeep Mathrani. "Their goal is to open, as I understand, 300 to 400 book stores," he said. Mathrani, who was speaking on his company's earnings conference call, didn't say where he heard the information.
Amazon has already dipped into brick-and-mortar bookselling, as it opened a real-world store last year in the Seattle neighborhood of University Village. That store is geared to leveraging both Web-based and real-world sales, allowing customers to order online and pick up their books at the store, while also providing Kindles and other devices to test out. While it's unclear how Amazon's plans might unspool, retailers -- both online and real-world alike -- are increasingly trying to leverage both retail models to capture consumers' fickle spending.
"I think Amazon's approach with the bricks-and-mortar stores is as much about showcasing the company and some of its products as it is about selling books," said Shelf Awareness editor-in-chief John Mutter in an email. "One indicator: the Seattle store's centerpiece are tables with Kindles, Fires and other electronic devices."
Amazon's Seattle store limits its titles to 5,000, which is fewer than typical booksellers stock, Mutter pointed out. That suggests that Amazon's efforts are more similar to tech giants such as Apple and Microsoft, whose real-world stores are showcases for their gadgets. (He added that he believes Amazon may be considering opening 12 or 15 stores, rather than the hundreds mentioned by Mathrani.)
An Amazon spokeswoman said it doesn't comment on rumors and speculation.
"To a degree, too, I think they want to see how people react in the real world to their sometimes unusual sales approach," Mutter said. "For example, the store in Seattle doesn't post prices -- you have to take a book to a bar code scanner or use an Apple app on your phone to find that out. And they emphasize titles that sell well online and/or get many positive reviews from Amazon customers online."
An expansion into brick-and-mortar stores by Amazon might be the sort of plot-twist that would keep independent bookstores and large chains at the edge of their seats. Shares of Barnes & Noble (BKS) fell as much as 10 percent in trading on Wednesday, amid investor concern about how a real-world expansion from Amazon might impact the chain.
Ironically, sales of printed books have been fending off e-books, which fell 11.1 percent in 2015, according to the American Association of American Publishers. Sales of trade adult books increased in almost every month during 2015, the group said last week.
"Independent bookstores have had a resurgence over the last three or four years," Mutter added. "Their sales rose about 10 percent last year, as measured by the American Booksellers Association."
On top of renewed interest in printed books, consumers are also responding to "buy local" movements. Then there's the benefit of having a real-live bookseller recommend a title, rather than relying on online reviews that may or may not be genuine. Publishers are also lending more support to small booksellers, given some of their recent battles with Amazon, which has been demanding more favorable terms from the publishing houses, Mutter pointed out.
"Amazon might be reacting to the indies' resurgence, seeing that there is an enduring market offline for books," Mutter noted.
for more features.


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Why yes, it does, and it even comes with an MP3 player!
And you can purchase in the comfort of your very own home. As reported on MSNBC.com the modern woman has long since parted ways with the Tupperware party, even the sex toys gathering. Now, young ladies meet at friends’ homes for…wait for it…the Taser party.
Now what exactly happens at these parties? There’s certainly no plastic food storage on hand, and no fluorescent vibrator, either. It’s even better: Attendees, many of which are single women looking for a little extra security, take turns trying the product, which shoots up to 15 feet.
"Lori Busken, 48, is the first in line. Busken, who is single, said she would feel better carrying a Taser than a gun. She did not buy a C2 right away, but she said she is planning to buy one soon.
'It's not heavy," she said after holding the weapon in her hand. "It's great they make them for civilian use. You don't want to kill somebody. You just want to be safe, you know?'"
The Taser C2 comes in a variety of colors, and the company recently introduced pink, lipstick red, and leopard print to the mix. In addition, Taser will release the MPH (Music Player Holster), which holds 1 GB of music. Crazy, I know!
Check it out here.


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Smithfield, a pork processor and hog producer, and Campofrio Chairman Pedro Ballve are considering takeover bid for an approximately 50% stake of Campofrio. Smithfield currently owns 37% of the business.
No financing arrangements have been finalized, but Smithfield said it expects the estimated 500 million euros ($716.7 million) needed for the offer would be provided through a combination of existing liquidity and capital market financings.
Last month, Smithfield Foods reported that its third-quarter net income climbed on strong pork demand and the benefit of a large insurance claim recovery. However, the company also said it would likely face higher costs over the summer, which will mean higher pork prices for consumers.
From the April 7, 2011, Prepared Foods' Daily News


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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – The business owners who were busted as part of Operation Candy Crush for selling products allegedly containing an illegal drug, have vowed to stick together and fight the charges to the end.
News 2 has learned, the assistant district attorney in Rutherford County offered plea deals to all the business owners, but so far none of them has accepted.
The store owners said they’ve lost revenue, and many of their loyal customers refuse to shop at their stores since they are being accused of being drug dealers.
After being chained and padlocked for five days, 23 Rutherford County stores are now back in business, but with legal fees and lost revenue, it’s hitting them in the pocket.
“It has hurt our bottom line very much,” said Kaleidoscope Custom Vapor Lounge owner Stacey Hamilton. “We’re a very small business and we’ve spent now $50,000 total lost and spent $50,000.”
Some customers are still showing their support, but the stores have mainly been empty.
“It’s going to continue because people don’t want to come into our shops because we are accused of dealing drugs which is absolutely untrue,” Hamilton said.
The businesses are now working together, vowing not to accept any plea deals.
They feel they’ve done nothing wrong.
“I did my homework very well before I started selling hemp and CBD products. I just wished Rutherford County had done theirs as well,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said the state made it seem like all the stores were selling gummy candies laced with CBD and marketing them to children, which is not the case.
She and her business partner sold Eco Caps, CBD Brand capsules and a CBD infused oil.
“All throughout this we were accused of selling gummy candies of which we never sold. Ever,” Hamilton said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation never tested the oil, and a forensic report showed one of the capsules tested did contain cannabidoil, but doesn’t show what level of THC, if any.
“We were treated like hardened criminal, drug dealers, and we all are hard-working taxpaying members of society and we didn’t deserve to be treated this way,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton said she received lab reports on every single batch of hemp or CBD products that come into her two stores and made sure they were derived from hemp and not from marijuana.
Some of the owners told News 2, after both their civil and criminal cases play out in court, they will consider filing legal action against Rutherford County and local authorities.
“Right now, I want to get the charges dropped against us,” Hamilton said. “I think a civil suit is a possibility for a lot of the people that were targeted in this raid – unfairly targeted in this raid. All I can think about at the moment though is clearing my good name and the name of my business.”
Charges were dropped against a couple because a TBI forensic report showed no illegal drugs were found in their products they sold, and another business owner who sold his business in 2013, but was still charged.


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If you find a drone under your Christmas tree this year, you're not alone.
The popularity of drones is soaring, say suppliers, amid the ongoing evolution of these high-fliers from science-fiction gizmos to affordable holiday gifts.
“If you get a drone for Christmas, you're going to be able to take some amazing vacation photos from a very high perspective,” says Alex Wright, founder and CEO of wholesaler Drone Depot. “You're going to be able to capture outdoor activities in a way that you never imagined possible before.”
Once sky-high in price, small consumer-grade drones are now available at a variety of price-points, starting at just a few hundred dollars for four-propeller basic models with a built-in camera, to a few thousand dollars for larger, higher-quality devices.
Also called UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), drones are capturing the imagination of aviation, video and tech enthusiasts, even as they increasingly raise security concerns.
So just how popular are they?
Dany Thivierge, owner of Mississauga-based online store Canada Drones, says demand for drones this holiday season is four times larger than the same period last year, while Ren Bostelaar, School of Imaging manager at Henry's Queen and Church Sts. location, says drones are now a major chunk of the photography store's business.
“We've seen this business go from something that really didn't exist last Christmas to this hugely significant piece of our business right now, and the fastest growing category that we have,” he says.
Danny Vrekalic of Scarborough-based Drones Toronto says dropping prices, simpler technology and a growing selection are all factors in the huge increase in demand he's seen in recent years for recreational drones.
DJI, one of the world's best-known drone manufacturers, has recently been featured in over 100 holiday gift guides from media outlets including Slate, Smithsonian Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. “From 2009 until now, we've seen revenue grow three to five times, year on year,” says Michael Perry, a spokesperson for the Chinese company.
- Unmanned devices changing everything from war to agriculture
- Five things you should know about the world of drones
And in case you weren't already convinced, Google knows what's on everyone's mind. For the first time, “drone” is now the fourth most common autofill response for the phrase “I want to buy” on the search engine, according to an analysis by ConvergEx group.
So drones are a big, and fast-growing, business. But despite the potential fun — high-quality drones can take some phenomenal photographs and video footage — experts say buyers should take precautions.
The potential dangers of UAVs have been a rising concern of late, in part thanks to a series of run-ins between recreational drones and planes. In one instance, there was a near-miss between two drones and a New York Police Department helicopter; in another, a drone spotted near Toronto's Pearson International Airport forced pilots to change their landing paths.
On a personal level, drones can be dangerous too, as Toronto resident Chance Brown quickly learned. He bought a DJI Phantom 2 drone about two weeks ago — and since then, he's crashed it twice and sliced his fingers open on its blades mid-flight.
“They could really hurt someone,” Brown says. “If you're in a big open crowd and that drops on someone . . . that's probably going to feel like 10 pounds hit someone's head.”
Despite the risks, drones are often seen as toys. There are various quadcopters sold at toy and electronics stores, such as The Source's Heliquad 2.4 ($60). “This is a great toy for ages 14 and up,” reads the summary. Some imported toy models are priced as low as $20.
Brown says some of those small UAVs have safety guards around their wing blades, unlike most of their larger, pricier counterparts. They also tend to be lightweight and can't support added weight like a GoPro camera.
The two shouldn't be confused. “You've got to understand that they're not a toy,” he says of full-size drones.
“Our products are designed for people 18 and over,” notes Perry, DJI spokesperson. “So if it's given as a gift to children, we recommend that it's operated only with parental supervision.”
Regardless of a user's age, drone experts stress the importance of proper training and research, rather than trying to fly a drone right out of the box.
“Safety and responsibility is a really big part of it,” says Bostelaar. “I know it seems like a whole lot of fun but don't get too excited and pop the battery in — actually read all the paperwork first.”
Some drone suppliers offer training when you buy your drone.
“I spend a half hour at least with each client and give them basic flight training and instruction on how to use the gear,” says Vrekalic from Drones Toronto.
Bostelaar says Henry's has a flight school that's starting up again in the New Year, where you learn the basics of drone ownership and practice flying outside.
Even with training, it's important to pay attention to Transport Canada guidelines — you can find information online at tc.gc.ca/safetyfirst. Some of the key things to remember include not flying a drone closer than nine kilometres from any airport, heliport, or aerodrome, and not flying higher than 90 metres above the ground.
“The fact that you're taking this thing off the ground means that you're a flier, and you have to follow certain rules about controlled airspace,” says Bostelaar.
But if you follow some common-sense guidelines, he adds, “You can have a total blast.”
Tips for safe flying
- Only fly your drone during daylight and in good weather, not in clouds or fog.
- Make sure your drone is always within sight.
- Make sure your drone is safe for flight and fully charged before takeoff.
- Avoid flying over private property or taking photos or videos without permission.
- Don't fly closer than nine kilometres from any airport, heliport or aerodrome.
- Don't fly higher than 90 metres above the ground.
- Don't fly closer than 150 metres from people, animals, buildings or vehicles.
- Don't fly in populated areas or near large groups of people.


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Canadian pricing has been announced by Kia for its new 2018 Kia Rio 5-Door sub-compact car. The car, first unveiled for North America in Montreal early this year and currently in the process of arriving at dealerships across the country, will be priced starting at just $14,995 for the manual-transmission LX trim, and will feature some surprising standard equipment such as heated front seats and steering wheel and a rearview camera.
Six trims of the 2018 Kia Rio 5-Door will be available to consumers in all, counting the different transmission set-ups. Kia is promising improved driving dynamics in the newest edition of the popular small car, as well as improved styling, increased cargo space and a stronger frame thanks to 32% more advanced high-strength steel being used than in the previous model.
Here is the pricing as announced this week for the new Rio 5-Door, for each trim and either manual or automatic transmissions:
•2018 Kia Rio 5-Door LX MT: $14,995
•2018 Kia Rio 5-Door LX+ MT: $16,595
•2018 Kia Rio 5-Door LX+ AT: $17,995
•2018 Kia Rio 5-Door EX AT: $20,945
•2018 Kia Rio 5-Door EX Sport AT: $22,045
•2018 Kia Rio 5-Door EX Tech Navi: $23,745


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By embracing an agile approach, built on a foundation of what can be called “intelligent availability,” organisations can dynamically provision analytics in a virtually limitless list of heterogeneous environments to satisfy countless business use cases.
Microsoft’s Sway, an online tool for creating presentation-documents, is now generally available to the public. Previously, a waiting list was in place. That Sway has taken down its rope line isn’t surprising. What is perhaps slightly unexpected,
So what exactly were those mysterious "flying Doritos" booking it high over the Texas Panhandle, and more recently, Wichita, Kansas? Nobody may be able, or willing, to give you a definitive answer,
Huawei may have released the best laptop of the year - if you can afford it.
Businesses in the trades sector are ditching old tech without wiping memory first.
Next-generation networks could mean big money for countries across the world.
Software update for iPhone users in China will solve patent issues, Apple says.
Report claims Edge detects and blocks phishing faster than any other browser.
iPhone maker plans on employing up to 15,000 people as part of new expansion.
When it comes to online selling and marketing, it’s frankly ridiculous to separate online and offline.
There are four areas on which to focus your NPMD solution to meet these requirements:
If you are planning to explore opportunities in e-commerce rental business here is your ultimate list of most popular rental business ideas.
The $600m deal will see Apple getting patents, workforce and offices in Europe.
General Motors put two engineers on leave who are connected to the company's ignition switch glitch, and reached out to NASA to confirm that its recalled vehicles can be driven safely. The two engineers were not named"This is an interim step as we seek the truth about what happened,
Despite withdrawing its support for its old Windows XP platform, Microsoft has announced a security update for the old operating system to protect it from the IE bug.Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2014/05/02/microsoft-finally-promises-internet-explorer-update-for-vulnerable-windows-xp/
Apple appears to be carving out extra profit on its phablet iPhone, as was expected, alongside the usual premium on devices with larger amounts of storage.Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2014/09/25/iphone-6-plus-costs-80-more-than-iphone-6-but-just-a-tenner-more-to-produce/
In a city famously known for good weather, the arrival of a small tornado can really freak people out.In the video above, a man in South Los Angeles throws out many an F-bomb—which were subsequently bleeped out—as a small tornado whips through his neighborhood, prompting power outages,
If the plane debris found Wednesday on the island of Reunion is confirmed to be part of the MH370 aircraft,
One small bull shark thought it would be a good idea to corner a pod of hippos at the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The hippos, however,


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If you've always wanted a harder, faster Aston Martin but don't want to ditch the air conditioning altogether, the form's new AMR sub-brand might just be the ticket
The AM-RB 001 hypercar might not be ready for another year or two, but the partnership between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing is already bearing fruit - at least from the design and personalisation departments...
Aston has announced the names of the companies it's working with on the Adrian Newey-led AM-RB 001 project, and what each will be providing. Anyone for a 900bhp V12?
'StigCam' is back to give us an uninterrupted view of a hot lap of Dunsfold, this time in an Aston Martin Vulcan
Aston Martin has revealed a drop-top 'Volante' version of the new Vanquish S, which will surely be one of the greatest tunnel running cars of our time...
Barn finds are awesome, but it's not often that we see old cars being 'discovered' in the open air among wooded farmland. That's exactly what's happened with this rusty DB4, and now it's for sale with a massive price tag!
Aston Martin's next generation Vantage has been spotted testing once again, and its AMG-sourced powerplant certainly delivers in the sound department
To answer media speculation, Aston Martin has released images of a prototype DB11 Volante, confirming that the production version will be here in 2018
Aston Martin's DB11 will soon come with a V8 option courtesy of Mercedes-AMG. Here's your first chance to hear it in action...
After revealing the Vanquish Zagato Coupe earlier this year, Aston Martin has gone one step further by producing a beautiful convertible that will make you wobbly at the knees


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He was born into poverty and dropped out of school. But Huang Guangyu built a business out of selling domestic appliances, becoming the richest man in China with a fortune worth £4.4bn. Yesterday, after one of the biggest corruption trials the country has seen, Mr Huang's career ended in a jail cell where he will spend the next 14 years.
China hopes the tycoon's punishment will send a clear warning to entrepreneurs and to foreign investors: that Beijing is taking a tough line on white-collar crime. The problem remains that despite huge advances, the rules for doing business in China are still being written.
The country has more than its fair share of cautionary tales for the would-be wealthy. Nearly 30 billionaires who have appeared on the annual Hurun rich list have been charged with bribery or are at the centre of a police investigation, while 19 of the 1,330 business tycoons listed in the past 10 years are either in jail or awaiting sentencing on bribery charges.
Mr Huang's career trajectory from rags to model entrepreneur began in southern Guangdong when as a teenager he got involved in the rag trade. Aged 17 he left his home town in Shantou to try his luck in Beijing. There he set up a roadside stall selling radios and other roadside gadgets that he bought from factories in Shantou. His energy and ingenuity coincided with an unprecedented boom in demand for fridges, TVs and washing machines in a newly consumerist China.
He aggressively delayed payments to suppliers, earning him the nickname the "price butcher", cutting margins to the quick, and soon had a handful of stores, which rapidly expanded. Gome Group now has more than 1,100 stores in 200 cities, with 300,000 employees.
His transformation into white-collar criminal seems to have resulted from diversifying away from the electrical goods that made him his fortune in the first place. He became involved in a private equity venture as head of the Beijing-based Pengrun Investment company. He was charged with paying 4.6 million yuan (£475,000) in bribes to five officials and insider trading of Gome shares worth 1.4 billion yuan (£140m). He was jailed for insider trading, bribing officials and unspecified "illegal operations," according to the prosecutors. He is also being investigated for manipulating share prices, money laundering and tax evasion.
China has an ambiguous relationship with its newly wealthy. It's common for the super-rich to be accused of bribery, tax evasion and greasing the palms of corrupt cadres, often for arcane political reasons. Among the tycoons serving time are Mou Qizhong, who got life for bank fraud, and property developer Zhou Zhengyi who was sentenced in 2008 to 16 years for bribery, fraud and embezzlement.Reuse content


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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
J.K. Rowling's latest book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" goes on sale at the stroke of midnight, July 16th, but if pre-orders are any indication, nearly everyone who wants one will already own a copy.
Scholastic (Research) planned an initial printing of 10.8 million copies for Rowling's sixth book, the largest first printing of any book in publishing history. That's up from 8.5 million for the fifth Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which was released on June 21, 2003.
"The Order of the Phoenix" previously held the record for biggest first printing, according to the publisher.
Pre-orders for "The Half-Blood Prince" are also breaking records at Barnes & Noble, Inc. (Research) and Amazon.com (Research).
Barnes & Noble announced on June 20 that pre-orders for the new "The Half-Blood Prince" totaled more than 750,000 at its store and on its Web site, and it expects that number to reach more than 1 million by the time the book goes on sale.
The bookseller said the sixth book is far ahead of the pace for the last book, but declined to give comparable data.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be the best selling pre-order book in publishing history," Steve Riggio, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, said at the time.
Pre-orders for the sixth Harry Potter book surpassed 780,000 on Amazon, according to Amazon's Harry Potter Meter -- an hourly ticker on the site that counts orders placed to date for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
The online retailer said it received more orders for the newest installment than for any book in the past 12 months.
In 2003, more than 789,000 copies of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" were ordered at Amazon.com -- more than twice the advance orders received for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which was the site's previous largest new product release.
A release of a new Potter book has become not just a business but a cultural event.
Millions line up to buy. News reports focus on the devoted, the merchandise, the movies, and the plot twists and turns of the new book.
And there's always the sport of tallying up how much richer Rowling can become. Her last novel put her net worth higher than the Queen of England's, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.
The latest Potter book should boost sales for Amazon.com but can it lift the stock out of its funk? Click here.
For more about the latest Harry Potter book, click here.


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Essay on the problem of price rise in hindi article shared by here is your essay on the problem of price rise specially written for school and college students. India wide protests on petrol price hikes have been frequent in the last 4–5 years on 24 may 2012 the petrol price was hiked by.
India business news: the rise in petrol and diesel prices has been making the news for the last week or so change in fuel price indeed has far. Petrol price hike is an epitome to show govt 100% in 2009, the indian govt shows no signs of reducing the price in the domestic market.
Apart from the problem of rise in food prices, india is also facing the such as the one-off increase in domestic petrol and diesel prices. The price of petrol sold by indian oil in delhi has gone up from ₹6548 on june 16 to ₹7038 a litre on september 13 – an increase of 75 per.
But petrol and diesel are very essential for our daily life we have to purchase petrol or diesel, whatever price we have to pay actually india. Home » subject » essay » petrol price hike and its effects on our day to day life within three years petrol price has increased 10 times and is still increasing. As all the commodities are transported across india on vehicles that run on petrol or diesel, so increase in petrol price results in price rise of.
The prices of petrol, cooking gas, kerosene oil and several other items «essay on “family planning and its need in india complete essay for.
This essay will review how the rising fuel prices affect the different india spent $15 billion , equal to 3 percent of its gdp , on oil imports in 2003 the increase in the price of oil has risen the cost of fertilizers which need petroleum or natural. Free essay: rising food prices introduction: food prices have been on the rise and have become a global issue prices the major cause for increasing gasoline prices has to do with refining capacity even if food price inflation in india.


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A chief economist explains the national coin shortage
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - If you have been holding onto a jar of pennies, now may be the time to cash it in.
The United States is seeing a national coin shortage because of the COVID-19 pandemic. You may have seen signs at chain restaurants or grocery stores asking for exact change. It’s not just out of convenience - it may be because they don’t have any change to give back to you.
“There is no conspiracy here,” says Matt Finn, chief economist at Old National bank. “It’s simply another effect of the coronavirus.”
According to Finn, there is about $48 billion of coinage in the United States. Right now, however, it may be hard to come by.
Finn says that’s because the U.S. Mint had slowed production of coins because of the coronavirus. Plus, fewer people have been using coins at places like vending machines, laundromats and car washes.
The coin circulation depends on those places regularly, depositing coins to the bank.
“The bank sends it to the federal reserve and redistributes it, based on need,” says Finn. “Well the problem is when people stop going to those places and people stop going to the bank - all that velocity of money, all that exchange of coinage slowed down.”
Finn compares this shortage to the toilet paper shortage we saw earlier this year. When people change their spending habits rather quickly, the system pays the price.
“What economists hope is that when the country opens up again and businesses get back to normal, the problem should fix itself,” says Finn. “But until that happens, it could get worse.”
Finn says the Federal Reserve has started a U.S. Coin Task Force to accelerate the circulation of coinage. When asked what individuals can do to help the circulation, Finn advises paying with exact change whenever you can.
Copyright 2020 WFIE. All rights reserved.


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As Samsung gets ready to release the Galaxy Fold again, we examine its recent patent filings and look back into Apple’s infamous Antennagate Scandal.
Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is set to go on sale in the US in a few days. The breakthrough product can be unfolded to maximize the screen estate for a tablet-like experience. Back in April 2019, the wait for the first foldable smartphone appeared to be over with the unveiling of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. As soon as the device was shipped to reviewers, news started coming in about the display screen’s tendency to break or bulge due to various reasons. For instance, Verge reported the appearance of one or more bulges on the display that created a gap formed at the hinge while opening and folding the device, which could lead to damage. Due to these issues, Samsung cancelled the planned April launch.
Samsung’s patent publications related to foldable technology from 2015-2019
Samsung’s filing activity related to foldable smartphones has shown steady increases in the last five years. Only a few of the recently published patent applications address the design problems encountered earlier in the Galaxy Fold. Interestingly, only 15 patent applications were both filed and published this year that relate to foldable display technology. In particular, the following Samsung Patent application, published by the Korean Intellectual Property office [KR20190040156A] on April 17, 2019, appears to focus on 3 particular problems. Interestingly, this application was first applied on 5th April 2019 and published within a couple of weeks. The patent application discloses a unique sliding structure for the hinge thereby addressing the buckling or crease problem with the display. The application also includes additional folding/sliding arms between the outermost layer of the hinge and the display, thus making it difficult for dust or other particles to make their way to the underside of the display. The application also discusses using a “hard plate” that is disposed under the display screen.
KR20190040156A : Foldable display device with sliding and multi-joint structure (top); KR101986617B1: Foldable device with cover member to cover the joint portion such that the device is not exposed to the outside (middle); US20190245955A1: Cross-sectional views of a display unit of a foldable device in a folded state and one embodiment of the foldable device (bottom)
Apple’s patent publications related to smartphone antenna placement and performance between 2008-2014
The recent events surrounding foldable smartphones takes us back to the infamous “Antennagate” scandal, as it came to be known, following Apple’s handling of antenna performance issues in the iPhone 4. Apple’s patent filings on antenna placement and performance saw a steady increase following the scandal. Selected Apple patents related to antenna placement and performance are presented below.
US8270914B2: “Antennagate” patent (top left); US8325094B2: Logo antenna for a portable electronic device (top right); US9991584B2: Antenna configuration in outer housing (bottom left); US9588643B2: routing based on detection of how a user operates an electronic device(bottom right)
The revamped Galaxy Fold carries improvements such as extending the screen protector under the bezel so you are not tempted to peel it off, reducing the size of the gap when it’s closed, adding covers to better protect the insides from debris, and adding more protection to the back side of the screen itself. Samsung Fold’s biggest competitor until now, Huawei’s Mate X, is also behind schedule and may not launch until the end of this year. It will be important for Samsung and other foldable manufacturers to be able to resolve these issues at an early stage for successful product launches.


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The Chinese giant is considering raising additional funds by selling its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Bloomberg reported yesterday citing several sources.
According to them, Alibaba wants to raise additional funds in order to "diversify funding channels and increase liquidity". It seems the company plans to file its listing application in the second half of the year.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is becoming an increasingly popular place for IPOs as a result of the rising tension between the United States and China. For example, last year, major companies such as smartphone maker Xiaomi and food delivery service Meituan Dianping listed their stocks in the HKEX.
Alibaba already tried to sell its shares in the HKEX five years ago, however, its filing was rejected due to rules around company structure. As a result, the Chinese technology giant debuted on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BABA).
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Minneapolis, MN, October 24, 2005 --(PR.com
)-- http://www.testedandproven.com – DDL, a leading package, product and material testing services laboratory, has been named a Top 50 fastest growing company by the Twin Cities Business Journal.
DDL has experienced record company growth over the last 3 years with a 25 percent annual increase in revenue. DDL attributes its rapid growth to its expansion into California and the development of its suite of PackServices.
“DDL currently offers two PackServices to package testing clients,” said John Hart, DDL CEO, “PackAdvice, a free package testing consulting service, and PackReview, which is a DDL approved ISO 11607 (clause 7) certificate of completion.”
DDL has also expanded its range of service offerings and its equipment inventory. The DDL West facility, located in Costa Mesa, California, recently hired a Hazmat testing expert to expand its package testing services. DDL West is also upgrading its product and materials testing services.
“Hazmat testing is just one area that DDL is becoming more involved in,” said Hart. “We have also seen a significant increase in our medical device testing business. DDL is quickly becoming known as a one stop shop for manufacturers’ package, product and materials testing needs.”
View DDL’s profile in the Twin Cities Business Journal Growth 50 feature at:
DDL offers expert package testing, product testing and material testing services including shock testing, vibration testing, tensile testing, leak testing and validation. DDL package testing clients find value through its suite of PackServices, which include zero-cost package testing consultation, PackAdvice, and DDL approved ISO 11607 certification (clause 7), PackReview. DDL Testing Services maintains full service testing labs in Minnesota and California.
Contact DDL at www.TestedandProven.com or call Scott Levy at 952-941-9226 ext.115