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- AffiliationNew England Patriots (NFL)
- Last Year's Rank-
- Total Earnings$35,000,000
Bill Belichick’s leading man signed a new three-year extension with the Patriots just before last season that had tiny yearly salaries (only $1 million base in the first year) but a big $30 million signing bonus. Many criticized the deal as being a sneaky way for the Patriots to save money now, only to re-do the deal later—Brady would cost them far less than some less elite QBs like Joe Flacco. Regardless, it means Brady will stay a Patriot for life. As for endorsements, Gisele’s fashionable husband has passed up many deals, choosing to have fewer relationships with a small handful of brands like Under Armour.


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2016 CPhI Worldwide
CPHI Worldwide 2016 was held in Barcelona, Spain from October 4th to6th. As usual, Xieli attended this exhibition.
Botanical Derivative APIs and Oncology APIs are our main products series, we had detailed conversations with new customers on the quality, specification and registration, and deep discussions with regular customers on problems during collaborations.
Xieli passed the Japan PMDA inspection, EDQM inspection, and USA FDA inspection this year, which reflect high lever GMP management and Quality System. This will help us to expand the business scope in different countries and regions.

domain: news


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UPDATE: we add three more images of the device, a user on Reddit has got to take a few minutes during a brief hands-on with the device. The impressions were very good, among other things; hit especially the extreme thinness, lower even than the Samsung Galaxy 5 Notes that for a device that has a physical keyboard is already a result. Keyboard slide mechanism, by the way, seems very solid and stable. User experience seems smooth and free from lag, even though the camera seemed a bit sluggish in focusing (in a hotel room with low lighting and unfinished software, don’t expect much more).
BlackBerry Priv, the first Android smartphone made by Canadian company, is now known by users around the world thanks to the extensive list of videos, photos and render emerged in recent weeks. Difficult therefore consider it still a secret.
The new images have appeared today allow us to see again the Terminal and get some confirmation about its functionality, including the ability to shoot movies in 4 k at 30 fps. This is possible thanks to the presence of a main camera from 18 Megapixels and a 64 bit 808 Snapdragon SoC will be the heart of the device. Among other things, the presence of a 64-bit processor is confirmed by the screen of AnTuTu that prompts the user to activate the 64-bit version of the famous benchmark.
Finally we also find a screen of BlackBerry Safeguard, the software developed by Canadian company which should guarantee the same safety standards that BlackBerry has used its users over the years, now on Android. BlackBerry Priv is expected to be released later this year, so his presentation appears to be imminent.


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While Americans celebrate all-day breakfast at McDonald's, one man in the U.K. is regretting his latest McMuffin. (Video via McDonald's)
Evans said: "I just couldn't stop being sick. ... Now even looking at McDonald's on television just makes me feel sick." He says he was bedridden for five days after eating the sandwich.
The news comes just as the Golden Arches celebrates its highest brand perception in two years. A YouGov poll found 46 percent of adults say they would choose McDonald's for their next meal; that's up 7 points from July.
A McDonald's spokesman said the company is investigating the incident and added, "The eggs used in our McMuffins are made with real, free-range eggs that are freshly cracked in the restaurant every day by our crew." (Video via McDonald's)
Evans told The Sun that Mickey D's offered him a free meal, but something tells me he's probably not cashing that in any time soon. (Video via McDonald's)
This video includes images from Getty Images.


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It’s official – Myovant Sciences Ltd. (MYOV) has received a buyout offer from its majority shareholder Sumitovant and the same has been turned down for now.
The preliminary, non-binding proposal from Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Sumitovant Biopharma Ltd. to acquire the remaining shares of Myovant that Sumitovant does not currently hold has priced the company at $22.75 per share in cash. Sumitovant currently holds roughly 52% of the outstanding shares of Myovant.
The proposed offer price represents an equity value for Myovant of $2.4 billion and an enterprise value of $2.5 billion.
Myovant is not ready to accept the buyout offer for now as it feels the proposed transaction significantly undervalues the company. However, the company has revealed that it remains open to considering any improved proposal. And that means Sumitomo/Sumitovant will now have to increase its offer price if it wants to buy Myovant.
We had alerted our subscribers to MYOV on July 28, 2022 when it was trading around $12. (Our report titled “Have You Added Myovant To Your Watchlist Yet?”).
Myovant has two approved drugs – Myfembree, indicated for uterine fibroids & endometriosis, and Orgovyx, indicated for the treatment of adult patients with advanced prostate cancer.
For the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 (three months ended June 30, 2022), net product revenue for Orgovyx in the U.S. was $36.0 million while Myfembree generated $4.0 million. This compares with Orgovyx net product revenue of $10.5 million and Myfembree net product revenue of $1.1 million in the year-ago period. (Myfembree was launched only in mid-June 2021).
With Myovant rejecting the initial bid and being open to improved proposals, it remains to be seen whether Sumitomo/Sumitovant will sweeten their offer price or a bidding war will break out.
MYOV touched a new 52-week high of $25.04 in intraday trading Monday, before closing at $24.44, up 36.08%.
Source: Read Full Article


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A FURTHER investigation into Volkswagen over its emissions scandal is not being ruled out by the Government, a transport minister has said.
The car manufacturer admitted in September 2015 that 482,000 of its diesel vehicles in the US were fitted with software to switch engines to a cleaner mode when they were being tested for emissions.
Around 11 million vehicles were affected worldwide including almost 1.2 million in the UK.
Volkswagen has agreed a 15 billion US dollar (£12.3 billion) settlement for motorists in the US but has faced criticism for not offering similar payouts in the UK.
Transport minister John Hayes told MPs today that the Government is considering what further steps it can take.
He said: "Volkswagen need to do more which is why I am going to meet them at the beginning of next week to tell them exactly that and why I insisted that they pay the £1.1 million which I received on Christmas Eve.
Could you claim £3,000 compensation after VW emissions scandal? Here's how to find out if you can join the lawsuit
Volkswagen unveils new electric-powered version of iconic VW camper van which can drive itself
VW driver dumps her car in FRONT of parking space for two hours blocking furious shoppers from getting in and out of their spots
"I demanded it as a Christmas present because that was the money that taxpayers had to spend as a result of their emissions scandal."
Volkswagen has pleaded guilty to three criminal charges in the US relating to the scandal and will pay a 4.3 billion US dollar (£3.5 billion) penalty.
Labour's Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) asked Mr Hayes during transport questions whether any Volkswagen executives could face similar charges in the UK.
The minister replied: "I hold no candle for those businesses that don't do right by consumers or, by the way, by their workers, and I consider that the actions that have taken place in the US, which I guess is what you are referring to, and the actions that are being considered by Volkswagen customers oblige the Government to think again about what further steps we can take and we are doing so.
COULD YOU CLAIM COMPENSATION?
DRIVERS in the UK caught up in the VW emissions scandal have joined forced with laywers to seek compensation from the car firm. UK law firm, Harcus Sinclair, has submitted a case to the High Court against VW on behalf of 10,000 affected UK consumers. It estimates that drivers could get around £3,000 in compensation, if the case is successful. For more information read our guide to how you can get involved in the UK VW lawsuit for compensation.
"I haven't ruled out a further investigation and I will be discussing that with the Secretary of State and raising it with Volkswagen at the meeting I described."
Shadow transport minister Pat Glass said Volkswagen owners in the UK were being treated "unfairly" compared with their counterparts in the US and that VW drivers feel "badly let down" because "it appears that the Government is letting VW off the hook".
Mr Hayes said: "I think we should consider further steps and, having considered them as necessary, where necessary, take them."
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at firstname.lastname@example.org or call 0207 782 4368


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As powerhouse brands from financial services to manufacturing look to pare their operations, small to midsized firms are emerging as a big opportunity during the economic downturn. According to industry data, small businesses have created 60% to 80% of the net new jobs added since the mid-1990s.
To address this sector, ZoomInfo recently unveiled enhancements to the SMB and midmarket company portion of the Waltham, MA-based company’s database of more than 45 million people and 5 million companies. The additional breadth of coverage and depth of insight is designed to provide sales and marketing departments with detailed profiles on 2.4 million companies with 500 or less employees, including descriptions, revenues, number of employees, locations and other information on public, private and non-commercial entities alike.
Using ZoomInfo’s enhanced company data, marketers and salespeople are provided with profiles on SMBs with a web presence and the millions of employees who own and work at them. The tool allows users to develop targeted campaigns based on the size and/or revenue, location or industry of companies they need to reach. This targeting is aimed to allow marketers to create messages and promotions which are tailored to address the specific needs of small, medium and large enterprises.
Tim Clark of Tom James Company, a leading custom clothier, pointed out that the expansion of tools like ZoomInfo’s are essential in this climate. “As large enterprises continue to tighten their belts, our sales and marketing operation has shifted its focus to driving smaller but more numerous business opportunities with executives in small and medium sized businesses,” said Clark. “Using the information provided by ZoomInfo Power Sell we have been able to expand our pipeline and service a greater market base by effectively being able to refocus on this often untapped area of the market.”
ZoomInfo’s semantic search engine gathers publicly-available information from the Web – through company websites, news feeds and other online sources – and then automatically compiles it into easy-to-search and easy-to-read profiles. More than 6 million people search www.zoominfo.com every month. And over 3,000 customers, including Yahoo!, Microsoft, Oracle, PepsiCo, and 20% of the Fortune 500, subscribe to ZoomInfo’s premium service products.
To reach 95% of business professionals, a brand must speak 10 languages. That’s a lot of translating, even for today’s modern marketers who now have more than 1,000 marketing technologies available to them for boosting productivity, scaling personalization, and simplifying and accelerating localization. According to a recent study from DNN Software, 15% of marketers surveyed use 10 or more different technologies for their daily work activities.
Good marketers know that creating a personalized experience for customers in other territories that generates demand means identifying and localizing the most important digital touch points. Marketing in multiple languages is an imperative for companies looking to build brands around the world, and it requires commitment, time and energy — as well as the right technology — to set themselves up for success.
Demand Gen Report’s 2014 B2B Buyer Behavior Survey provides insights into how B2B buyers make their decisions. Buyers are waiting longer to engage with sales, but they are more satisfied with the process than in years past. For an in-depth look at this research, download the report now!
Social Media Marketing World 2015 is the world's largest social media marketing conference. By attending, you'll make connections with 100+ of the world's top social media pros (plus 2500 of your peers) and you'll discover amazing ideas that'll transform your social media marketing strategies.
In the age of the customer, marketers face three acute strategic and operational challenges: how to connect with distracted, empowered customers; how to engage customers once those connections are made; and how to nurture customer obsession as a strategic imperative throughout the organization. This Forum will teach you how to build and lead a next-generation marketing organization focused on customer obsession.


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The MEFFYS Payment Award 2024 goes to LINK Mobile Invoice.
LINK Mobility and its payment product, LINK Mobile Invoice, won the MEFFYS award in the Payment category during the MEFFYS Award event in Barcelona.
MEF, the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, organizes the MEFFYS Award annually. MEF is a global trade association whose members are companies with products that enable mobile services such as messaging, content, advertising, payments, and IoT.
This year marks the 19th consecutive year that the MEFFYS Awards have announced seven winners in different categories: ID & Data, Enterprise Communications, Content & Advertising, Global Connectivity, Mobile IoT, Payments, and Personal Contribution. To be eligible for the award, all entries must originate from companies that have made an impact in one of the seven categories. LINK Mobile Invoice was nominated as the most innovative Mobile Payment service in 2023 and won this award.
“With LINK Mobile Invoice, customers can pay when, where, and how they want, choosing their preferred payment method. By partnering with payment providers, we have managed to offer a very simple customer experience,” says Marius Røe, Head of Payment Solutions at LINK Mobility.
He continues; “It's great to get recognition for something we're constantly working on. That LINK Mobile Invoice won at the MEEFYS Award is a milestone and an honor for LINK Mobility.”
Thomas Berge, CEO in LINK Mobility is also proud of the Award “We are proud to win the payment award at MEEFYS for our innovative LINK Mobile Invoice product. At LINK, we continuously focus our activities on solutions enhancing customer value.”
For more information about LINK Mobile Invoice, please contact us!


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- The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will walk home with ₹48,390 crore after the record-breaking bid closed on June 14.
- Now, after the last auction,
IPLthe value is up 3x to ₹48,000 crore meaning franchises will get a bigger profit drop from BCCI.
Mumbai Indiansto Chennai Super Kings, here’s how IPL Franchisesmake money from different sources.
The Indian Premier League is probably one of the few companies in India that remains unaffected by rising inflation, a global pandemic and rising interest rates. After the recently concluded media rights auction, money is going to rain for its franchises.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will walk home with ₹48,390 crore after the record-breaking bid closed on June 14. With this, India’s biggest sporting event has witnessed a 3x increase from the previous cycle, with the National Football League ahead by a narrow margin at $17 million.
Disney-Star held the rights to television for 23,575 crore, while India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Viacom18 took home two and a half bundles for ₹23,750 crore, including digital non-exclusive digital rights and a few international countries. New winner Times Internet shared the international mandate with Viacom18.
Aside from the media winners, the two biggest beneficiaries of the recently closed auction would be the IPL teams and their franchisees.
The Economy of IPL
BCCI collects huge revenue from broadcasters and Over-the-top (OTT) platforms by selling media rights. It withdraws its share and much of its revenue is then shared with the IPL teams.
Franchises get a guaranteed 40-50% revenue share (share of ₹48,000 crore for the next cycle) from IPL’s central contract revenue pool. The final winning team of the season will take home the bulk of the BCCI winnings.
Now, after the last auction, the IPL value has increased by 3x to ₹48,000 crore, meaning franchisees will get a bigger profit reduction from BCCI.
According to financial consultancy Elara Capital, the average revenue of all IPL teams is likely to double in the next five years.
For the next cycle of IPL 2023-2027, 10 teams will enter the battlefield, including two new teams Gujarat Titans and Lucknow SuperGiants.
The fee and revenue share for high demand teams like Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals is more than others as they have better earning potential – both in terms of sponsorship and gate receipts.
Elara Capital forecasts that after the recent auction, Mumbai Indians’ revenues will rise 109.1% from 3,836 million to ₹8,020 million and Chennai Super Kings will see their revenues increase by 124.9%.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore and SunRisers Hyderabad will see the biggest increase at 133.8% and 138.4% respectively than their previous revenue collection.
Among the publicly traded companies behind major franchises, Sun TV Network, Reliance Industries and United Spirits will see growth in market capitalization as the value of their IPL teams improves.
According to a recent poll conducted by
Stocktwits51% are optimistic about media stocks after the
IPL franchises also earn from brand sponsorship, prize money, ticket revenue and merchandise sales.
Aside from the media revenue discussed above, IPL franchises generate a significant portion of their revenue through brand sponsorship.
Franchises partner with brands to make the brand visible by endorsing their logos on their jerseys, headwear and team kits. The bigger the logo, the more the money brand has to pay.
Teams also earn from other tournament-related marketing activities organized by their sponsors. Sponsorship income reportedly rounds out
20-30% of revenue for an IPL team.
The global pandemic hit India’s biggest sports gala in 2020 and 2021. However, this year it was back with a bang.
Now that the stadiums are full of spectators again, a small part of the ticket sales will go to sponsors and the BCCI, the rest will go into the team’s wallet.
Ticket prices are determined based on the stadium’s capacity, the excitement surrounding the event, the standard of living in the city, and so on.
Ticket revenue is said to make up about 10% of revenue for IPL teams.
BCCI offers a colossal prize money to the winning team. In 2018, IPL champion Chennai Super Kings took home a prize of 20 crore
According to a ResearchAndMarkets report, India’s sports equipment and apparel market is estimated to be worth $28 billion in 2022 and $40.6 billion in 2027.
Each franchise sells merchandise, including T-shirts, caps, wristwatches, and so on, and gets a portion of the money raised from consumers.


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While the member state domestic political wrangling is to come, most notably in the US Congress, 2015 was a year that finally saw twelve Pacific economies reach agreement on a mammoth free-trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership (‘TPP’), slated to come into force by 2018.1
These twelve, all members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (‘APEC’), from out of whose membership, but separate to it, TPP was born have agreed to form the widest and deepest free trade agreement in history. This success is all the more astonishing, and the extent of the free trade obligations reached more impressive, if one considers that the so-called 2013 ‘Bali Agreement’ from the World Trade Organisation ‘Doha Round’ – the fourteen years of WTO trade talks aiming for really quite modest opening up of global trade - appears to have run aground, thanks to Indian objections to liberalising global agricultural trade.2
WTO of course is a global trade agreement. TPP leapfrogs WTO and it does so capturing over one quarter of global trade from twelve countries that account for nearly 40% of global GDP.
The arguments for and against TPP have been well-rehearsed: under the TPP agreement, export revenues among the twelve member countries are expected to increase by USD$305 billion per year by 2025, and workers’ incomes also increase. Reductions on export tariffs for carmakers, up to eight years of data protection for new biotech drugs, and a reduction of restrictions on sales in international markets for technology companies represent just a few of the many additional benefits anticipated from the TPP. There are even additional environmental protection safeguards.
Detractors, however, say TPP has the potential to promote cheaper goods from low-wage countries, undermining manufacturing jobs in a country like the USA; and will do nothing to address income inequality amongst member countries. Nobel laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, called TPP “a motivator of greater inequality.”
Before the TPP text was released – so much of the criticism of TPP arose from the fact that unusually all drafts were kept secret - there were fears the intellectual property (‘IP’) chapter of TPP would lead to abuses by multinational (particularly US pharmaceutical and ITC firms), since the agreement allows foreign companies to sue governments for changing laws or policies that significantly damage their business. In the event, however, the IP chapter only retains data exclusivity in pharmaceuticals for eight years, rather than the twelve years US pharmaceuticals have become used to in the USA.3
Mexico, Chile and Peru: Participation in the TPP from the Pacific Alliance
As three of the four members of the existing Pacific Alliance regional trade bloc, Mexico, Chile and Peru will all feel distinct effects from TPP. Sofofa, a Guild Federation that represents industrial companies in Chile, has announced that it considers TPP beneficial for Chile, and President Bachelet has been vocal in asking Congress to support the agreement. Chile and Peru, both commodity-driven economies, will see 98% of taxes on their exports of dairy, sugar, wine, rice and seafood eliminated; with tax and tariff reductions on many other foods. Additionally, Peru will benefit from Australia’s participation in TPP, because of potential synergies between their mining sectors. Chile arguably will be less impacted, as the two countries already maintain a trade agreement.From a commercial perspective, TPP stands out as the first major trade agreement of the innovation era. It possesses clear-cut provisions designed to safeguard digital trade and data flows, and permit commercial enterprises to store data across borders, rather than requiring them to store data domestically. Mexico, and to a lesser extent, Chile, led the push during TPP negotiations for such data flow provisions, successfully overriding Asia-Pacific countries such as Australia and Singapore, who were less enthusiastic. In this way, the TPP has already provided an avenue for Latin American economies to demonstrate leadership in the nascent trade and regulation of digital information.Colombia: The Pacific Alliance’s Non-ParticipantColombia is the only Pacific Alliance member not participating in the TPP, although it has formally expressed an interest in doing so, and is in a strong position to join. All current states in the TPP are also part of the APEC membership, of which Colombia is not, and it is thought that this may have contributed to Colombia´s current exclusion. Colombia requested APEC membership in 1995 (which it has yet to receive) and maintains free trade agreements with five of the eleven current TPP members. Colombia recently signed a free trade agreement with South Korea, and it is negotiating a free trade agreement with Japan. For the most part, it should not see its exports diverted as a result of the trade within the bloc.
China and Brazil: The Excluded
China:China’s conspicuous absence from the TPP holds important implications for the shape of regional trade between the Asia-Pacific countries and Latin America. China’s exclusion has angered Beijing, causing them to view TPP as a geopolitical containment effort rather than a free trade agreement.Closer examination of TPP membership, and China’s lack of participation reveals a definitive line with the US and Japan on one side, and China on the other. Perhaps not coincidentally, the US and Japan have both refused membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which China announced in part as an answer to America’s much-vaunted (but scarely delivered) ‘Asian Pivot’, ostensibly to help facilitate regional connectivity and infrastructure development in the Southeast Asian region.TPP isn’t the only Asia-Pacific deal in town. For many years, and led by the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (‘ASEAN’) there have been moves to launch a Regional Common Economic Partnership (‘RCEP’) of the ASEAN ten plus Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. The RCEP area should have a combined GDP of $17 trillion, and also make up about 30% of world trade. However, RCEP is a very different type of trade agreement, with none of TPP’s breadth of provisions or scope. But the reach of even these more modest ambitions has exceeded ASEAN’s grasp and ASEAN member states recently delayed (again!) implementation of RCEP until the end of 2016. It was supposed to come into force December 31st 2015.Of ASEAN members most notably Indonesia struggled with the idea of opening up Indonesian markets from their current highly protected state. Other ASEAN members like Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and tiny Brunei are also TPP members and, they believe, their economies will roar ahead, grabbing the lion’s share of foreign direct investment (FDI), while more timorous Indonesia will experience a severe opportunity cost of forgone FDI.Brazil:This concept of ‘FDI opportunity cost’ is talked about amongst bankers and economists in Brazil. The limits of geography aside (Brazil is not a Pacific state, nor a member of APEC, from out of some of whose members TPP was born), the position of Brazil in a Latin America where TPP is a major economic driver is fascinating.On the one hand, the Pacific Alliance used the trade deal as a way to further establish themselves as an alternative to Brazil’s large domestic market. On the other, Brazilian public policy is preternaturally uninclined to engage in free trade, or the agreements to underpin it. Brazil remains a rather protectionist market. With an economic crisis, a deep political corruption scandal, a currency value loss of 35% against the US dollar, low presidential approval and a ten percent inflation rate, domestic issues are taking precedence within the Brazilian government, and diverting attention away from trade agreements. While Brazil’s currency depreciation has benefited exports, Brazil now runs the risk of losing out to Chile and Peru, as 24% of Brazil’s exports last year went to TPP countries. TPP also gives Chile, Mexico and Peru access to US markets that Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela can only ever dream of, no matter who in power.Given the political stasis and risk of recession becoming depression in Brazil, it is feared by some that TPP will be a punctuation mark which will start to see a marked divergence of future FDI away from Brazil and pivoting toward TPP members; especially in higher value-added sectors.This leaves Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela with Mercosur. Along with Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay, these are the six full members of Latin America’s ‘EEC’ (as the pre-cursor to the European Union was known). Traditionally Mercosur is looked upon, by free trade hobbyists, with a look of faint embarrassment that one might have for a wayward child. Until the very recent political changes in Argentina, and Venezuela, it was thought unlikely that any real life might be breathed into Mercosur, but perhaps the potential is there, one day, for Mercosur to be a bridge to TPP in some way. But, realistically, this can never happen unless Brasilia see a major shift in focus away from domestic market protectionism and towards a real commitment to integrate into international free trade.
Although the conclusion of the TPP talks is a major feat, all is not over yet. Most member countries are waiting quietly to see how the US Congress will react to, among others, the data protection clause for pharmaceutical clinical trials before putting the agreement forth to their own congresses.
Given the upcoming US presidential election, the Democratic Party’s resulting need to cater to its labour union base, and the lobbying strength of PhRMA, the member countries may have to wait a while before the US Congress decides whether to allow the President to ratify the agreement.4
In the meantime, companies who are able to see the writing on the wall are considering how best to leverage TPP in investment plans for their developing economies portfolios.
We are already seeing some pharmaceutical companies preparing for imminent regulatory coordination between TPP’s Latin America countries. What will be most interesting to look for, and especially at a time when global investors are being much more choosey whether or how much to invest in developing economies, is if we see any early sign of FDI switching towards the TPP ‘LATAM three’ and away from countries outside TPP.
To discuss a potential requirement for support and learn more about our business, please contact:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Email: email@example.com
2.TPP, also, is not all about tech and pharma. Some of the toughest TPP talks were between the US and Japan about opening the latter’s highly protected agricultural sector.
3.This is eight years longer than the exclusivity protection they currently enjoy, however, in some TPP member countries.
4.The USA is not the only country that may struggle to ratify. This is also true of Malaysia, which almost dropped out of TPP in the final furlong. For Malaysia ensuring that TPP does not endanger its ‘Bumiputera’ laws is critical. The Bumiputera laws provide for positive discrimination for ethic muslim Malays for housing and certain land rights; education and employment preferment.


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- House and Senate negotiators reach two-year budget deal
- Congress seeks ban on in-flight calls
- Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy site sold to owners of Townhall, HotAir: report
- GM’s Barra to be first woman to run top American carmaker
- China: Poisonous smog is a military asset, if you think about it
- Texas woman admits to sending ricin to Obama
- Ron Paul on son Rand: ‘I think he probably will’ run for president
- Cold War heats up again in the Arctic: Russian airfield reactivated after 20 years
- 6-year-old boy suspended for sexual harassment over kiss
- Voters deciding Mass. congressional contest
Economy Briefs: Ford adds 1,200 jobs at Detroit-area plant
The news comes ahead of the Christmas season, which can account for up to 40 percent of retailers’ annual sales. Toys 'R' Us has focused on exclusive toys rather than discounts as it faces tough competition from online retailers like Amazon.com and discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Facebook co-founder sells $108M in stock
He sold the shares on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for proceeds of more than $108 million.
T-Mobile adds iPhone plans ahead of launch
NEW YORK | T-Mobile USA, the only “Big 4” phone company that doesn’t sell the iPhone, now wants to snag used ones from AT&T. Starting Wednesday, when Apple is expected to reveal a new iPhone model, T-Mobile will start advertising that AT&T iPhone owners who are out of contract can switch to T-Mobile.
Transocean, feds weighing possible $1.5B settlement
NEW ORLEANS — Transocean Ltd. and the U.S. Justice Department have discussed a $1.5 billion settlement that would resolve federal civil and criminal claims against the company over its role in a deadly 2010 rig explosion that spawned the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.
But Switzerland-based Transocean said in a regulatory filing Monday that several issues, including the possible time period for payment, must be resolved before a deal can be completed.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports.
By Donald Lambro
Growth spikes are little more than trend-free anomalies
- Obama takes 'selfie' at Mandela's funeral service
- Harry Reid's visa pressure cooker
- Chinese man fed up with his girlfriend's shopping jumps to his death
- CARSON: Why did the founders give us the Second Amendment?
- Obama lied about Syrian chemical attack, 'cherry-picked' intelligence: report
- Obama shakes hands with Cuba's Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela's funeral
- Somber duty: U.S. presidents in hot demand at Mandela's memorial
- Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu backs out of Nelson Mandela funeral
- Obama's antics at Nelson Mandela tribute: Jovial conversation, handshake with Raul Castro
- American bourbon now better than Scottish whiskey: U.K.-born expert
Independent voices from the The Washington Times Communities
A column dedicated to discussing politics, national security, civil liberties, and education.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
The “Silver Tsunami” created by aging Baby Boomers is hitting America. Let’s explore how we adjust to it, enjoy it and defy negative expectations about age.
Find the latest news and happening that effect those in the Washington D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland Metro region.
White House pets gone wild!
Let it snow


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Mercedes-Benz is adding a battery-electric variant of the Sprinter as it updates the third-generation commercial van line. But it's not yet clear when, or if, the eSprinter will be sold in the United States. New connectivity services and improvements will make the Sprinter's cab a better workplace, Mercedes says.
Redesigned for the 2019 model year, the next-gen Ram 1500 finally broke its cover last week at the Detroit auto show. It won't take long for the new Ram to arrive at dealerships in the U.S., as production is set to begin this month. Here is a roundup of initial reaction to the new pickup.
The redesigned 2019 Ram 1500 pickup -- wholly changed and sporting sophisticated technology once reserved for luxury sedans -- is the result of that all-in commitment to the automaker's top-selling vehicle.
Along with Ford's pace-setting F series, the redesigned Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500 form a collection of trucks that showcase some of the most sophisticated technologies each manufacturer has in its arsenal.
The long list of engineering, safety, performance and functional improvements -- a bigger and quieter cabin, a stronger frame, more storage and improved fuel efficiency -- in the next Ram half-ton truck signal that FCA is determined to challenge Chevrolet and Ford like never before.


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A casket maker in Boston, Massachusetts, is offering a Black Friday bargain of $50 off the cost of one’s future and final resting spot.
Buying a coffin ahead of your demise will potentially save thousands of dollars for those left behind, as well as spare them emotionally fraught and costly decisions, according to Joshua Siegal, chief operating officer and a co-founder of Titan Casket, an online service that seeks to offer cost transparency in an industry not known for the practice.
“Consumers end up spending way too much and only have a few options to chose from,” Siegal told CBS MoneyWatch.
Most large manufacturers only sell caskets to funeral homes, with the products marked up as much as 300%, according to Siegal.
Meanwhile, most Americans are unaware of a federal law enacted in the 1980s that requires funeral homes to accept deliveries of caskets purchased by consumers.
Siegel had been working in logistics at Amazon when Scott Ginsberg, who had been selling caskets through Amazon since 2016, pitched him on the idea of selling caskets directly to consumers. By 2020, Siegel and his wife joined Ginsberg, adopting a business model akin to Costco.
People can choose between 1,000 models, including some made specially for military veterans and others custom-wrapped in LGBTQ rainbow flags. Prices start at $500 for a biodegradable cardboard box to $4,000 for a casket made from steel and other decorative finishes.
Fewer than 40% of funeral provider websites offer prices online, forcing grief-stricken relatives to do their funeral shopping in person, according to a Federal Trade Commission staff report released in October.
In addition to its own website and Amazon, Titan’s products are sold at retailers including Costco, Sam’s Club and Walmart.
The company drew an unexpected but welcome marketing boost when one of its caskets appeared in avideo released in October. The video for Swift’s “Anti-Hero” includes a sketch that takes place at Swift’s fictional funeral, in which the singer cracks open the top of the casket and peers out.


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TikTok eliminated over 3.7 crore movies from India for violating its pointers within the first half of 2020, the corporate owned by China’s ByteDance claimed in its transparency report revealed on Tuesday. The report additionally underlined TikTok’s initiatives to flag and eradicate misinformation on the platform. In late June the federal government banned TikTok in India together with 58 different apps that had a linkage with China. Apple App Retailer and Google Play each eliminated the app within the nation and telcos disconnected consumer entry to the platform shortly after the nationwide ban got here into impact.
Within the transparency report, TikTok stated that it had eliminated a complete of three,76,82,924 movies from India within the first half of 2020. These movies have been part of the 10,45,43,719 movies faraway from the platform globally for violating its group pointers and phrases of service.
“Of these movies, we discovered and eliminated 96.46 % of movies earlier than they have been reported to us, and 90.32 % have been eliminated earlier than they acquired any views,” the corporate said within the report.
Along with the removing of movies, TikTok stated that the quantity of authorized requests additionally elevated on the platform with the expansion of consumer base and content material over the primary half of the 12 months.
“We acquired 1,768 requests for consumer data from 42 nations/ markets. We acquired 121 requests from authorities businesses to limit or take away content material from 15 nations/ markets,” the corporate famous with out offering any regional-specific particulars.
TikTok additionally evaluated 10,625 copyrighted content material take-down notices globally, the report talked about.
Aside from offering information to focus on its pointers enforcement, TikTok stated that it had launched its fact-checking programmes in India and several other different markets, together with Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the US. The platform launched a misinformation report performance with a COVID-19 sub-category in India to permit customers to flag deceptive content material. It additionally added public service bulletins (PSAs) by totally different hashtags.
TikTok additionally partnered with UNICEF India, UNESCO, UN Ladies, UNDP India, Central Sq. Basis, and Indian Psychiatric Society within the nation, the report stated.
Ought to the federal government clarify why Chinese language apps have been banned? We mentioned this on Orbital, our weekly expertise podcast, which you’ll be able to subscribe to through Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or simply hit the play button under.


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- The humble plastic straw has been the target of effective environmentalist campaigns, despite making up a minuscule proportion of global plastic pollution.
- The initial campaign emerged from some dubious figures about the number of plastic straws, which were repeated by media around the world.
- Nonetheless, clear messaging from activists plus the fact most able-bodied people can easily stop using them, has led to an effective campaign against plastic straws.
In 2011, a nine-year-old child from Vermont started his own investigation into the mass-production of the plastic straw. After calling various straw manufacturers in the US, Milo Cress estimated that Americans use 500 million plastic straws every day.
That one statistic was – in part – credited for starting a worldwide movement after being cited by numerous news outlets, despite Cress himself admitting that the number was a very rough estimate when interviewed by NPR (a fact-check made by the New York Times brings that figure down to a more modest 170-390 million).
After social media campaigns such as #stopsucking used the ‘500 million’ statistic as part of their key messaging, the plastic straw became the target of environmental groups across the globe, prompting countries to take action against their respective contributions plastic pollution.
In Australia, we used an estimated 10 million straws per day in 2018, but even that number is debatable.
The statistic nonetheless carries a lot of weight. Environmental consultant Peter Allan told the ABC, “Attention-grabbing statistics can take on a life of their own, even when their sourcing is uncertain.”
Regardless of the number, the message was clear: plastic straws were the new taboo.
As of 2020, plastic straw bans of varying severity have come into effect in numerous jurisictions. McDonald’s chains across Australia have vowed to phase out the now-contentious Coke counterpart by this year; Rio de Janeiro banned the distribution of plastic straws back in 2018, and New York has been sitting on a complete straw ban proposal for two years.
So why, despite only making up an estimated less than one percent of plastic flow into the ocean per year, has the plastic straw become a symbol for environmental degradation? There are a few reasons.
As Sarah Gibbons of the National Geographic suggests, “For most able-bodied people, the straw is something you can easily do without. Eliminating plastic straw usage rarely requires a drastic change in behaviour.”
It’s true that the average person is going to be less reluctant to drink without a straw than they are purchasing a sushi roll that’s packaged in plastic (food packaging was the most commonly found type of garbage during a global clean-up effort in 2018), as the end result is apples and oranges. We can still consume beverages without a straw, but we can’t necessarily purchase food without the packaging, making a plastic straw a far easier target.
“What it really comes down to is living with less plastic, and changing old behaviours,” Hilary Brueck wrote in a piece outlining the seemingly sudden focus on plastic straws.
It would appear then, in an effort to get naturally stubborn people to nudge ever so slightly towards a more sustainable life, the plastic straw was simply the easiest target. It’s difficult for many to argue the necessity of its existence. Can you drink without a straw? For most people, yes. Do you need a straw for any other purposes? No.
Imagery certainly helps, too. In 2015, a video went viral showing a sea turtle with a straw lodged in its nostril, and environmental campaigns lunged at the opportunity.
Simple, effective messaging joining forces with a beloved sea creature to eliminate (arguably) one of the world’s most expendable utensils?
The plastic straw never stood a chance.


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PC Pro Podcast Dell Special 1
While Black Friday started life as bargain hunting for Christmas buyers, an increasing number of small businesses are taking advantage. In this special podcast in association with Dell Small Business, PC Pro editor-in-chief Tim Danton discusses the savings to be made, and the pitfalls to avoid, with columnist and IT consultant Jon Honeyball and associate editor Darien Graham-Smith.
18 Nov 2019
The team discusses the latest news from Computex in Taipei, asks whether Huawei might make its own mobile OS, ponders Amazon's plans to offload small suppliers and pores over Dolby's legal complaint against Adobe. Amid the bonanza of new hardware emanating from Computex, no fewer than three Hot Hardware candidates duke it out.
30 May 2019
PC Pro Podcast 464
The team discusses a new tool for messing with advertisers, Google's plan to educate kids about fake news, a light-based networking platform that could replace Wi-Fi and the arrival of AI in PowerPoint. Our Hot Hardware candidate is the tiny but surprisingly capable Raspberry Pi 4 Model B.
27 Jun 2019
Jon Honeyball joins the team as we discuss Facebook’s data-mining scandal, new concerns over the legality of Bitcoin, Microsoft’s fumbled acquisition of Wunderlist and Uber’s fatal self-driving car crash. Our Hot Hardware candidate is the JBL Link 20, a battery-powered smart speaker running Google Assistant.
22 Mar 2018
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3 Oct 2019
The team discusses the latest developments in 5G networking, incoming regulations for online purchases and the new Prime Minister's ambitious target for fibre broadband in the UK. Our Hot Hardware candidate is the Asus RT-AX88U, a powerful router that supports 802.11ax, also known as Wi-Fi 6.
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13 Jun 2019


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Herschel’s Co-Founder Explains Why You See His Backpacks Everywhere: 'Good Design Is Democratic'
Herschel co-founder Lyndon Cormack explains why his brand has soared to become one of the most well-known in the world
A woman on the subway. A suited businessman on his way downtown. A middle school girl on her way to school. A photographer carting around his equipment. A senior citizen touring New York City. All of these people had one thing in common: They were wearing Herschel Supply Company.
The eight-year-old Canadian brand has enjoyed the type of rare and rapid success companies can only dream of, and it’s because of who wears it: Everybody. And thanks to it being sold at some of the biggest retailers, from youth-targeted companies like Asos and Urban Outfitters to Nordstrom and Shopbop, it has reached full proliferation with children and grandparents alike wearing the brand. In fact, fans of Herschel have bought over 15 million products of color-blocked backpacks, wallets and now, newly launched clothing—all complete with a signature patch identifying its Herschel status.
RELATED VIDEO: Back-to-School Treats from MasterChef Junior
However, the founders, brothers Jamie (below left) and Lyndon Cormack (below right), say that market domination was never the goal, though it’s a nice benefit. “We knew there was a big opportunity to come up with something that was design-driven, something that had classic it in its nature, but also had a really nice attention to detail,” Lyndon tells PEOPLE.
So, in November 2009, the brothers launched their company—named after the rural Canadian town Herschel, Saskatchewan—in Vancouver, Canada with a divide-and-conquer approach: Jamie heads up design and product, while Lyndon handles marketing and sales.
“We are where were at because of Jamie’s precise attention to detail and how passionate he is about design and product,” says Lyndon. “Myself, I tend to be quite a macro-thinker in relation to operations and I’m definitely motivated to say yes more than no.”
Their commitment to designing what Lyndon calls “modernized, nostalgic products” has translated into big business: They are stocked in over 10,000 places in 72 countries around the world and they employ over 170 people, including 30 dedicated solely to product design, Cormack says. (Below, a shot of the Vancouver headquarters.)
Lyndon credits this success to one essential thing: “Good design is democratic,” he says.
“People are going to respond to well-designed products,” he says. “We do design a little bit more specifically for the 16- to 28-year-old guy and girl. But we feel that our aesthetic is so timeless and it resonates far beyond that and it does, which is pretty amazing. When you see my mom, who is 69-years-old, carrying a Herschel, it doesn’t look out of place.”
So, are they surprised by their cult following? “No,” says Lyndon. “I’m not surprised that it has resonated with so many people, but we are definitely extremely happy that we have become successful in such a short amount of time. We feel very fortunate about that.”
No wonder you see those darn backpacks so often. According to the company, the three bestselling and most popular are the Settlement ($59.99 to $69.99), the Pop Quiz ($74.99 to $84.99) and the Little American ($99.99 to $109.99) styles, pictured at the top, as well as the Novel duffle bag ($84.99 to $119.99), pictured above.
However, the top-selling piece is actually not a backpack or bag at all. It’s the Charlie wallet ($19.99 to $29.99). “Most people would assume it’s the backpack, but we actually sell more wallets than anything else. It’s only $20 [average], and that might have something to do with it.”
As for what the future holds, expect more of what made them famous, and universally appealing, from the beginning. Says Lyndon, “Passion is contagious and I think that if we continue to concentrate on that the future is quite bright.”


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Fifteen days after the January 14 Cryptopia hack, hackers who stole over $16 million from Cryptopia exchange have returned. According to an article published by Elementus today January 29, the thieves started withdrawing money from the exchange wallets yesterday.
Elementus had warned some wallet holders on the exchange about the vulnerability of their wallets on the exchange as they anticipated a second strike. Unfortunately, these, nearly 2000 of those same wallets were affected this time and 5000 more that were drained in the first hack.
According to today’s report, the thieves moved the funds to a different wallet address before finally transferring all stolen funds adding up to $180 thousand to their wallet which is said to contain the previously stolen $16 million.
“Initially it wasn’t clear whether this might be Cryptopia securing their remaining funds. But by 9:50pm this evening, we got our confirmation that this was indeed the same thief. At that time, the incoming transfers stopped and the combined funds were moved into the address below, the same wallet that currently stores the other stolen Cryptopia funds.”
Meanwhile, the New Zealand Police have been on the case but no tangible information has been found concerning the whereabouts of the thieves or what progress has been made in the hunt that has been on since the 14. Indeed it is a difficult case like they stated in the report because the thieves must be very confident about their activities to return and spend a whole day draining funds again.
Attacks on crypto exchanges have become commonplace despite the enduring bear market. Even in 2018, there were notable hacks such as that of Mt Gox which has made the company bankrupt. It is sad that this trend has followed the industry into the new year and is likely to continue.
Apparently, the users have not been instructed to stop topping their wallets or they are completely unaware which is kind of strange. An earlier report said users had stormed the exchange’s office demanding their money but only ~40 of them. It is however uncertain if any refund has been made to any of the users.


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AMResorts sent out a press release with the announcement of the opening this year of two of their brand-resorts: Secrets Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Actually what caught my attention was the announcement of the president of AMResorts saying the company is entering the Aruban market by 2011.
AMResorts is a new company founded in 2001. Secrets-brand, an adult only resort, is currently only active in Mexico and is said to expand with two resorts in Montego Bay, which opens in the last quarter of this year.
Secrets Resort & Spa in Montego Bay features 350-suites. Assuming a building with a similar size for Aruba brings several interesting questions. Where is it going to be build? Palm Beach? Eagle Beach? Or elsewhere? What is going to be build? I highly doubt it will be a new building as that option seems to be a very touchy with locals and – regular – tourists alike. Perhaps they’re going to acquire an existing resort (La Cabana? Holiday Inn?) and transform it into a Secret Resort, just like Riu Palace did when they acquired Aruba Grand in 2007. How about abandoned Bushiri? Or a new building at the southern side of the island in San Nicolas? Lot’s of question at this point.
I haven’t heard anything from the officials side at this point. However, AMResorts unequivocally confirmed the entrance into the local market. To be continued.


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"We are working very hard to attempt to not expose the introduction of IPv6 to every end user. We're tying to make it as seamless as possible," Ward says.
Juniper is committed to native IPv6 support on its main Web site rather than creating an IPv6-only Web site. Juniper says it is launching internal IPv6 micro Web sites where it will test IPv6 and IPv4 content and routing transition strategies as well as to pilot its IPv6 Web site content.
Juniper's approach to IPv6-enabling its Web site will take time. The company says it won't commit to serving up IPv6 Web content until September 2012, which is the same time frame that the U.S. federal government plans to support IPv6 for its Web sites.
"It certainly could happen before [September 2012]," Ward says, adding that IPv6-enabling the company's Web site is just "one way to measure" Juniper's progress and competitiveness in the area of IPv6.
IPv6 is the biggest upgrade in the 40-year history of the Internet. Forward-looking carriers and enterprises are deploying IPv6 because the Internet is running out of IP addresses using the current standard, known as IPv4.
IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses and can support 4.3 billion devices connected directly to the Internet. IPv6, on the other hand, uses 128-bit addresses and supports a virtually unlimited number of devices -- 2 to the 128th power.
As of October 2010, 95% of IPv4 address space has been allocated, according to Internet registries that delegate blocks of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to carriers and enterprises. Experts say IPv4 addresses could run out as early as this December but will certainly be gone by the end of 2011.
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and other Internet policymakers are urging Web site operators to support IPv6 by Jan. 1, 2012, or risk disenfranchising users with IPv6 addresses by providing them with slower, less-reliable service.
"In 2012, we expect to see new broadband customers being connected to the Internet via IPv6, and Web sites that are IPv6-enabled will have the best performance reaching those customers," says John Curran, president and CEO of ARIN.
No immediate impact


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Violent worker protests have erupted at the world’s largest iPhone factory in central China as authorities at the Foxconn plant struggle to contain a COVID-19 outbreak while maintaining production ahead of the peak holiday season.
Workers at the factory in Zhengzhou shared more than a dozen videos that show staff in a standoff with lines of police armed with batons and clad in white protective gear. The videos show police beating workers, with some bleeding from their heads and others limping away from chaotic clashes.
Beijing’s strict zero-COVID regime has posed big challenges for the running of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant, which typically staffs more than 200,000 workers on a large campus in the city’s suburbs.
Wednesday’s unrest will heighten investor concerns about supply chain risk at Apple, with more than 95 percent of iPhones produced in China.
Problems at the plant earlier this month led Apple to cut estimates for high-end iPhone 14 shipments and to issue a rare warning to investors over the delays.
Two workers at the Foxconn factory said the protests broke out on Wednesday morning after Apple’s manufacturing partner attempted to deny bonuses promised to new workers put into quarantine before being sent to assembly lines.
“Initially they just went into the plant seeking an explanation from executives, but they [the executives] didn’t show their faces and instead called the police,” said one of the workers.
The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Please do not copy and paste FT articles and redistribute by email or post to the web.


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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Following this past week’s announcement that Juul Labs would be discontinuing their top-selling mint e-cigarette pods, the company has revealed its plans to release wrongful-death-lawsuit flavoured pods.
The new pods are crafted to mimic the hyperventilation experienced by worried CEOs of modern tobacco companies slammed with countless lawsuits. Juul hopes that by allowing customers to participate in the company’s misery, they’ll be more understanding of the adverse effects they are causing by constantly complaining about nicotine related deaths.
“Most teenagers are drawn to our e-cigarettes for our sleek designs and candy-like flavours,” said Hannah Nguyen, a spokesperson for the brand. “But by terminating our most popular flavour and replacing it with a sensorial nightmare, we hope to cover our due diligence towards public health.”
In a consumer test conducted by a third-party agency, 78% of teenagers reported that they would continue to smoke Juuls, even if the pods were flavoured as deterrents. The deterrent pods tested were wrongful-death-lawsuit flavoured, hormonal-BO flavoured, and literal-shit flavoured.
One teen interviewed after the testing insisted that they would smoke Juuls regardless of what the company did, saying, “If I close my eyes while I hit the wrongful-death-lawsuit flavoured pod I can move past the taste of lawyer sweat and plummeting stocks, and actually taste light traces of cinnamon.”
This latest innovation comes weeks after the company announced Juul Retro, a healthier alternative to combustible e-cigarettes, which some critics have identified as being just cigarettes.


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By now many of us are deep in our planning for 2022. What factors should you consider as you think about the business conditions you face next year? Will 2022 be more of the same as 2021? Or will trends be more negative…or more positive?
But a 57% Increase in SG&A Expenses Swung the Quarter to a Net Loss
Snap One Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SNPO) announced the results for its fiscal 2021 third quarter last week and said that thanks in part to an August 2021 price increase and continued expansion of its dealer base, the company booked a substantial revenue increase to $260.7 million, or 15% higher than the same quarter the year before. However, the company additionally reported a net loss of -$21.5 million, way below the net income of $1.4 million in the quarter last year, due to a significant increase in SG&A expenses.
See more on the Snap One 3rd quarter results[Read more…] about Snap One Sees Q3 Revenues Increase Thanks to Price Increase & More Dealers
But Were Things as Rosy as Its Report Suggests?
Emerald Holding, Inc. [NYSE:EEX] (Emerald), formerly Emerald Expositions and owner of the CEDIA Expo and CE Pro, announced this week that, thanks to the restart of live events in the third quarter of fiscal 2021, they were able to see a substantial reduction in their net losses on a significant revenue gain as compared to the same quarter in 2020 – the year of COVID shutdowns. While the company is still battling its event cancellation insurance providers in a California court for reimbursement for past canceled and impacted events, they say that they see the road to recovery ahead.
See more on the Q3 announcements from Emerald[Read more…] about Emerald Says Fiscal ’21 Q3 Revenues Up & Losses Down as Live Shows Restart
CEDIA recently filed their Form 990 with the IRS – a required filing by non-profits disclosing key financial data – and for the first time in a while, I found some interesting and somewhat confusing things in there. Yes, I obtain the organization’s 990 filings every year just to get a sense of how things are going. Like all of us, the organization is filing for, at best, the previous year and often they request and receive an extension. Hence, we are just now getting a glimpse of their 2019 results…and it was an eye-opener.
See what the CEDIA interim co-CEOs told me about 2019[Read more…] about CEDIA 2019 IRS Filing Reveals a $3.7M Deficit; Org Dubs It a Transitional Year
Azione Unlimited announced today that it has partnered with Nationwide Marketing Group, a group representing more than 14,000 storefronts made up largely of appliance, furniture, and electronics retailers. While Nationwide may not be an immediately obvious choice as a partner for Azione, the custom integration specialist group maintains that it makes perfect sense as they say integrators must be able “to address all of their clients’ needs, no matter the room in the home.”
See more on the merger of Azione Unlimited and Nationwide Marketing Group[Read more…] about Azione Unlimited Merges with Nationwide Marketing Group
CI coaching business Vital announced this week that well-known industry veteran Lawrence Davis has joined the company as its new VP of Business Development. The company says that this move is “the first step in their growth plan.”
See more on Vital hiring Lawrence Davis[Read more…] about Well-Known Industry Vet Lawrence Davis Joins Vital
Moody’s Investors Service, one of the nation’s largest credit rating agencies, announced last week that it has raised the credit rating of Guitar Center, the owner of custom integration company Audio Visual Design Group. Guitar Center has struggled for years, finally falling into bankruptcy – from which it emerged about ten months ago in December 2020.
Read more about Guitar Center & AVDG’s elevated rating[Read more…] about Moody’s Upgrades Credit Rating of Once Bankrupt Guitar Center, Parent of AVDG
Nice, a global manufacturer of Smart Home, Security, and Home & Building Automation products based in Italy, announced today that it has acquired Nortek Security & Control – purchased from Melrose plc for $285 million. The move expands Nice’s portfolio and strengthens its North American presence.
See more on this new Italian home for Nortek Control[Read more…] about Nortek Security & Control Acquired by Italy’s Nice
As I am sure that most readers of this post will know, during CEDIA Expo at the beginning of September, I published a continuously updated post tracking which previously announced exhibitors subsequently made the decision to pull out of the event as the COVID Delta variant raged on. A remarkable realization occurred as I worked on that post, literally speaking with dozens, if not hundreds, of exhibitors and attendees for that event – many of them were confused about who owned the CEDIA Expo!
See why who owns the CEDIA Expo matters…[Read more…] about Who Owns the CEDIA Expo? And Other Important Questions of Context
Only Ergotron Remains…for Now…from the Original Acquisition
Melrose PLC, the private equity turnaround expert that purchased the entirety of Nortek back in 2016, unceremoniously let it slip in a bullet point of a report on financial results, that it has found a buyer for the last remaining piece of the Nortek puzzle they have struggled to turn around over the years. Although they did not name the buyer, Melrose says a contract has been signed for a $285 million deal – remarkably low considering all the brands included in this transaction.


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The official website for Japan Post announced on May 31, 2022, that it has teamed up with the My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU franchise to launch an exclusive stamp collection. The original stamps will be sold only at 133 post offices in Chiba City and Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture.
The collection will contain a stamp sheet, clear cards in a social media-like style, a postcard, a B5 card, and a commemorative envelope.
The stamps will be on sale from June 17 till stocks run out. It will be priced 2,000 yen (US$15). They’ll also be available online until June 25, but with only 2,000 sets available for purchase.
Original author Wataru Watari attended a launch ceremony on June 7 held at the Chiba Municipal Inage High School. He also shared images of the ceremony on his Twitter account.
My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, abbreviated as OreGairu and Hamachi and also known as My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, is a Japanese light novel series written by Wataru Watari and illustrated by Ponkan8.
There are three manga adaptations and two anthology volumes. It has been adapted into an anime television series, which aired between April 4 and June 27, 2013 and was followed by a second season which aired between April 2 and June 25, 2015, as well as a third and final season which aired between July 9, 2020 and September 24, 2020.
Yahari Game demo Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatteiru, a video game was released by 5pb., for the PlayStation Vita was released on September 19, 2013. A second video game also by 5pb was released on October 27, 2016. Both games were bundled together in a release for the PlayStation 4, titled Yahari Game demo Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatteiru. & Zoku Omatome Set, which was released on October 26, 2017.


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Goldman Sachs stated in a observe to shoppers on Tuesday that the blockchain with the very best “actual use potential” is Ethereum, suggesting its ETH might turn into the dominant digital retailer of worth.
As such, Goldman predicts the whole market capitalization of ether (ETH) might overtake the whole market cap for Bitcoin (BTC) within the coming years, according to a report in Enterprise Insider.
“[Ether] at present seems to be just like the cryptocurrency with the very best actual use potential as Ethereum, the platform on which it’s the native digital foreign money, is the preferred improvement platform for sensible contract purposes.”
Smart contracts comprise software program enabling the automated execution of digital contracts, with the know-how having facilitated the growth in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and crypto-powered decentralized purposes (DApps).
The analysts famous that Bitcoin’s first mover benefit had given it the stronger model, nevertheless the imagine it lacks a number of the use instances of Ether and lags in transaction speeds. On account of its its deal with exhausting cash and community safety, Bitcoin doesn’t but supply the identical stage of performance as Ethereum.
As a youthful community, Ethereum has additionally been capable of develop at a sooner charge than Bitcoin. Whereas Bitcoin grew 261% up to now 12 months, ETH was up by 856% in the identical interval.
Regardless of tipping Ethereum over Bitcoin, the analysts additionally argue gold is a superior retailer of worth to digital belongings, characterizing gold as “defensive inflation hedge” and crypto as a “risk-on inflation hedge.”
“This competitors amongst cryptocurrencies is one other threat issue that forestalls them from changing into secure haven belongings at this stage.”
The observe comes the month after analysts from Goldman Sachs’ Funding Technique Group informed shoppers that crypto is not even an “investable” asset class. The analysts said:
“Whereas the digital asset ecosystem might effectively revolutionize the way forward for all the things, that doesn’t indicate that cryptocurrencies are an investable asset class.”
Banks aren’t the one ones who’ve seen Ethereum overtake Bitcoin in some substantial approach. The founder and CEO of the Celsius Community, a crypto depository and lending firm with $17 billion in digital belongings underneath administration, informed Kitco Information Monday that Ether has already eclipsed Bitcoin when it comes to holdings among the many platform’s customers and believed it will achieve this within the wider world in 2022 or 2023.
Disclaimer. Cointelegraph doesn’t endorse any content material or product on this web page. Whereas we purpose at offering you all vital info that we might acquire, readers ought to do their very own analysis earlier than taking any actions associated to the corporate and carry full accountability for his or her selections, nor this text may be thought-about as an funding recommendation.


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Global technology player BenQ has resolved to establish direct presence in South Africa in what the company calls a strategy to better serve the rapidly increasing demand from the local market.
BenQ MEA MD Manish Bakshi said the company made the decision to expand its presence in South Africa, due to the country’s reputation as the “economic and technological superpower of the continent”.
“The South African economy is the largest in Africa and accounted for 24 per cent of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011, at USD 422-billion. South Africa is also ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank – making it a market that provides BenQ with significant potential for measurable growth,” said Bakshi. “South Africa also forms part of BRICS, which is an association of leading emerging economies. This makes South Africa a very lucrative market for BenQ. What’s more, South Africa is recognised as the gateway to Africa, and establishing a strong presence locally will serve as a strong platform for expansion across the continent in the long term future.”
BenQ is an acronym for ‘Bringing Enjoyment ‘N’ Quality to Life’, and the company is recognised as a global leader in the manufacture and supply of digital networked devices, including; digital projectors, LCD monitors, digital cameras and TVs.
BenQ was established in Taiwan in December 2001, and is currently recognised as the number one DLP projector brand worldwide, and the second largest brand in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) projector market.
Bakshi highlights the fact that South Africa has been identified as the third largest market for BenQ MEA, constituting a total of 20 per cent of regional sales. “Our current share in the South African market is widespread, and we already have a well established reputation as a reliable manufacturer and distributor of monitors, projectors, cameras and TVs. In this highly lucrative market, it is important for BenQ to be proactive in its marketing and public relations campaigns, in order to ensure that the company remains competitive.”
According to Bakshi, South Africa is also one of the most technologically-resourced countries in Africa, with more than 60 per cent of all the continent’s internet traffic generated locally. “The internet is continuously expanding in South Africa, and our main objective is to increase our existing market share and build a stronger product positioning by improving our online marketing and branding activities, in order to reach all major target regions in the country,” he continues.
Looking to the future, Bakshi notes that BenQ’s main objectives locally for 2012 and 2013 is to establish itself as the preferred brand in the region and number one projector brand worldwide, by ensuring that its services are easily accessible for end users, through its improved local presence.
“Last Mile Marketing methods such as roadshows, in-store promotions and in-store POS materials are BenQ’s focus and that has considerably helped us in achieving our current status. Our strategy is to select distributors who conduct sales in volumes, in addition to selecting value partners who will assist us in the niche segments. This will help do justice to the full range of products carried by BenQ,” he adds.
“BenQ is currently ranked as the second largest projector brand in South Africa, with a total market share of 15 per cent in Q2 2012. We plan to consolidate on that success through the continuous introduction of innovative and industry leading technologies to this sector. What’s more, we plan to further expand our local product range by introducing new models of digital cameras, LED and LCD TVs to the consumer market, in addition to launching interactive flat panels and large format displays to the corporate market,” he concludes.


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The largest glass fabrication plant in the world, owned by the Fuyao Glass America, in Moraine, Ohio, the United States. Fuyao Glass America is part of Fuyao Industry Group Co. Ltd., a leading international manufacturer of automotive and industrial glass located in China (XINHUA)
A decade ago, Sara Bongiorni published a book titled A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy. It chronicled her American family's experiment with a yearlong "boycott" of Chinese products. The book describes their daily inconveniences and problems—she could not even find a non-Chinese-made candle for her husband's birthday.
Her 4-year-old boy rebelled against his mother's boycott, demanding Chinese-made toys. Bongiorni concluded that without made-in-China products, she and her family would face mounting expenses. The problems became so great that in the following decade she lost her enthusiasm to conduct a second trial of the experiment.
Ten years later, Chinese products are found in more American homes than ever before and the two economies have grown increasingly interdependent. Bilateral trade volume reached $519 billion in 2016, meaning that China and the U.S. are now each other's second largest trading partner. Over the past decade, the goods and services China has provided to the U.S. has increased by 98 percent and 132 percent, respectively.
But on March 31, U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders aiming to reverse the nation's trade deficit. The orders ask for a report on the causes of the trade imbalance and a call for customs agents to collect anti-dumping duties owed to the U.S. According to the 2017 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers released on the same day, the country's largest trade deficit was with China, at $347 billion in 2016. Trump intends to increase employment in the U.S. through these measures.
One may find irony here because many have noticed how Trump's suits and ties, his daughter Ivanka's line of shoes, the red caps his supporters wear and even the U.S. flags they wave were all actually made in China.
Some have even joked that it was in Yiwu, a city in east China and an important export hub, where people first successfully predicted Trump's general election victory after noting that orders for Trump's campaign products greatly outnumbered those for Hillary Clinton, his main opponent during their run for office in 2016.
Without a doubt, the significant economic and trade ties that have evolved and underpin China-U.S. relations will not be easily severed, regardless of Trump and his team's rhetoric.
Benefits for the U.S.
Trade between China and the U.S. has created substantial benefits for Americans. Statistics available from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis indicate that the top American export categories to China in 2015 were generally high value-added, bringing substantial profits back to the U.S.
Today, a large number of new jobs in the U.S. are created as a result of exports to China. An Oxford Economics report demonstrates that China-U.S. trade has created 2.6 million jobs in the U.S., equivalent to 4 percent of the votes cast for Trump in the general election. The economic contribution of bilateral trade in the U.S. reached $216 billion, accounting for 1.2 percent of U.S. GDP in 2015.
At the same time, China has consistently made new investments in the U.S., and now holds over $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds (5.5 percent of the total amount of T-bonds). In stark contrast to this is the U.S. lavish expenditure on its defense budget and huge national debt. In Afghanistan and Iraq alone, the U.S. Government has spent more than $1.6 trillion of taxpayer money. China has helped the U.S. maintain its economic and financial stability over more than a decade of war and overspending.
To be frank, the U.S. economy cannot afford the cost of unemployment and price increases for millions of Americans who now benefit from China-U.S. economic ties, and who would lose their jobs and livelihoods as the inevitable consequence of a trade war.
In the future, trade and economic exchange with China can continue to create great value for American consumers. Around $233.8 billion worth of consumer goods (excluding food and cars) were imported from China to the U.S. in 2015. According to Oxford Economics, U.S.-China trade helps each American family save $850 per year. Thus, any economic sanctions the U.S. may levy against China would undermine its own economy by hurting consumers at home.
Furthermore, for hi-tech and high value-added American enterprises, China is an enormous and fast-growing market. An Economist Intelligence Unit report shows that there are now 132 million Chinese people who have more than $10,000 of disposable income, and this figure is estimated to hit 480 million by 2030.
Who would suffer more from a China-U.S. trade war? Some have said that China might lose more in the short term, but in the long run, because of China's economic resilience and high potential for growth and development, the U.S. will suffer more.
There is evidence to support this point of view. Thanks to the U.S. blockade on chip exports to China, for example, China has independently developed a chip industry using its own intellectual property, thus lowering the dependence on imports, causing the market share for the U.S. chip industry to shrink.
So, what sort of China does the U.S. prefer? A China with an open economy, or one forced into protectionism?
We must also take into account that the most significant economic cycle in the world economy today exists between the U.S. and China: As U.S. consumers buy Chinese products, China has more foreign exchange reserves to buy a large amount of U.S. T-bonds.
By investing in China's manufacturing and capital markets, U.S. multinational companies and investors earn profits and bring them back to the U.S. at an average yield many times greater than U.S. T-bonds. This cycle will break down if China is forced to become more protectionist, fundamentally harming the U.S. This is the bottom line that Trump must be mindful of.
Causes for unemployment
The fundamental reason for team Trump's tough stance and rhetoric is that his administration has lost its focus on the U.S. real unemployment problem and its root causes.
Fundamentally, it is a mistake to blame U.S. manufacturing job losses on Chinese products. In fact, these job losses are triggered by evolving technologies, such as artificial intelligence, automated and electronic manufacturing and management. All these technological advancements substantially increase efficiency, productivity and have replaced manufacturing sector jobs.
In 1999, the average labor needed to produce a car was 0.1, but by 2014 this figure was reduced to just 0.07, implying that automation is the culprit behind jobs losses in the automobile industry. Traditional employment-absorbing sectors, such as the automobile, machinery and chemical industries, are growing slowly or even declining in the U.S.
Even if these industries were to leave China, they would not necessarily return to the U.S., and are more likely to end up in other countries. If Trump simply adopts protectionist measures and blames China without considering the influence of technological advancement, he will not only obscure the facts, but also hurt the well-being of the American people.
The trade deficit
But the question remains, how can the U.S.-China trade deficit be reduced? Rather than launching a trade war against Chinese exports, we may look toward America's exports to China for a solution. The U.S. has long imposed strict hi-tech export controls for China.
Nevertheless, China's hi-tech market is expanding rapidly. China's import demand for civil aviation, machine tools, integrated circuits and other high-end products will reach $600 billion by 2020, which is approximately twice the U.S.-China trade deficit in 2015. It is estimated that if the U.S. eases its hi-tech export restrictions on China, China will import as much as $60 billion of these products from the U.S. Facing this huge and rapidly growing market, why doesn't the U.S. loosen control and expand hi-tech exports to China?
It is time for Trump and his team to make a choice. Protectionist actions and tight control over exports in a zero-sum game will get both China and the U.S. into trouble. The other choice is to adopt a more positive export policy toward China that is conducive to achieving a win-win outcome for both parties, and maintaining the beneficial economic cycle shared between the world's two largest economies.
China has contributed greatly to globalization alongside the U.S. But today, while China still strongly reaffirms globalization, some remarks and potential policies of the Trump administration deviate from the irreversible trend of global integration which was set in place by previous U.S. administrations. Again, this will not help Trump to "Make America Great Again," and will only push the great country into troubled waters.
In conclusion, I hope wise Americans will see the harm that a U.S.-China trade war would cause, and at the same time join me in opposing such action.
The author is a professor and executive dean at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. The article was first published in the Financial Times on March 27
Copyedited by Bryan Michael Galvan
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Pro:Direct Sport has extended its contract for five years with Unipart Logistics to support warehouse and distribution services for end customers across its U.S. market.
Unipart Logistics has supported U.K.-based Pro:Direct Sport since its U.S. launch in 2010. Unipart Logistics also provides personalization services using Boot iD machinery to embroider sports products. Customers can customize their orders to have their name, player number or country flag stitched onto football boots or team shirts with fast turnaround.
Claire Walters, Unipart Logistics chief commercial officer, said: “We’re delighted to extend our decade-long partnership with Pro:Direct Sport in North America where we have been proud to support them from initial launch through significant growth. We look forward to continuing to deliver Pro:Direct Sport’s exciting growth plans.”
Steve Staines, Pro:Direct Sport head Of logistics, said: “After a very difficult year with COVID-19 disrupting almost every part of the business, Pro:Direct Sport is delighted to extend our contract with Unipart. This enables us to finalize the integration of our warehouse management system and customer-facing platform. With the help of Unipart, we will be in a great place to massively increase market share. We look forward to working with Unipart over the next five years.”
Photo courtesy Pro:Direct Sport


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Recently, there has been a growing interest in “sustainable tourism” as a travel style, but there is often a gap between local businesses and tourists in terms of what sustainable tourism actually is.
We are proud to announce the launch of the Visit Nikko website. Nikko is already one of the most well-known tourist spots in Japan, but few visitors go past Nikko Toshogu Shrine, and even fewer stay overnight.
We recently had the pleasure to launch Ishikawa Travel, highlighting the diverse appeal of Ishikawa’s three distinct regions.
We’re excited to announce the launch of a new website we’ve been working on for several months. visit-kyushu.com showcases the natural beauty and warmth of Japan’s southern island.
The FunkyCorp team journeyed far and wide to harvest rice, pick grapes, make soba noodles, and meet local farmers to write about Japan’s countryside.
FunkyCorp is in the news! Our work was featured in the September issue of National Parks magazine.
We’ve just launched the new JNTO microsite Luxury Japan, featuring the very best of Japan’s art, accommodation, fine dining and exclusive experiences.


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A puppy was stolen from a pet store in Windward Mall and the store owner is asking for your help.
The puppy is a black-and-brown purebred Rottweiler. She’s seven weeks old and weighs nearly 10 pounds.
Koolau Pets Plants and Ponds owner Matthew Furtado said they’re making fliers to hand out and the store is offering a $500 reward.
We learned the puppy was taken Monday afternoon after the suspect asked to pet the dog.
Furtado said the suspect not only stole a precious pet, but also took his trust in people.
It was just another busy day with a new display of Rottweiler puppies at the front of the store.
“Lot of people coming in and looking at our puppies. Everybody likes to come to the pet shop,” said Furtado.
Furtado tells us three employees were working at the time.
The suspect came in and tried to open the top lid of the display, but found that it was locked, so he asked an employee if he could hold one of the puppies.
“He asked one of the girls to see it. She pretty much took it out and gave it to him, walked into that petting room,” said Furtado. “Two or three minutes later, according to the videos, we see the door open up and he ran straight out the door with the puppy in his hands.”
Surveillance footage was handed over to police. The Honolulu Police Department tells us it’s investigating this incident as a second-degree theft case.
Because of the value of the stolen puppy, it’s considered a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
We asked Furtado if employees watch customers playing with puppies in the play room.
“No,” he replied. “Usually, we are pretty trusting. Now we have someone staying and we tell them to watch the front now or we are going to take driver’s licenses. We’re not sure how, but we are definitely watching. It just goes to show that you can’t trust anybody nowadays.”
No arrests have been made at this time. If you have any information, call police.


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Toronto, May 29th 2017 - Équiterre released today at the Electric Mobility Conference in Toronto a new report showing the impact of a national zero-emission vehicle mandate in Canada. The report Accelerating the transition to electric mobility in Canada shows that addressing the supply of electric vehicles in Canada is essential policy to the electrification of transport in Canada.
Last Friday, Minister Garneau and Minister Bains announced the development of a Canada-wide strategy for zero-emission vehicles, to be implemented by 2018. Équiterre is a member of the Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) Advisory Group which will be providing recommendations to the ministers for this strategy.
Moving people and goods accounted for a quarter of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2016. GHG emissions from personal vehicles keeps growing every year, as we put more and more vehicles on the road every year. As the fleet of vehicle fleet on our roads is very slow to turn over, it is critical to rapidly increase the sale of new zero emission vehicles in Canada if we are to see emissions reduction from personal transportation in the medium to long-term.
“While we applaud the commitment to have a zero emission vehicles strategy in Canada, this strategy must include ambitious national sales target for zero-emission vehicles, supported by legislated requirements for automobile manufacturers to bring those vehicles to the Canadian market” stated Sidney Ribaux, Executive Director for Équiterre. “This strategy needs a vision and a high level of ambition if it is to be effective” added Mr. Ribaux.
ZEV sales in Canada have seen strong growth in the past five years – and broke records in 2016 – but sales of such vehicles still made up just slightly more than 1% of new vehicle sales in British Columbia and Quebec -- and half a percent in Ontario -- last year. “Governments have invested in charging stations and some provinces provide generous purchase subsidies, however if the types of electric vehicles people need, at a price they can afford, are not available on the Canadian market, we will not see high adoption of electric vehicles in Canada” stated Annie Bérubé, director of Government relations for Équiterre. “The report found that a ZEV mandate, would yield the greatest “bang for the government’s buck” in Canada, as it is a cost-effective policy for governments to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles in Canada.” stated Ms. Bérubé.
California and ten other states already have a ZEV mandate. Quebec has also recently adopted a zero-emissions vehicles mandate.
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Dale Robertson, medias relations, Équiterre


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A Seaford building is getting out of the retail business after more than 60 years.
The largest building at Calvert Manor, a shopping center built in the mid-1950s, is being remodeled for a new tenant, Northwell Health. Also, the three small shops on the property, in the 1200 block of Hicksville Road, are being relocated to a small, new building on the 4.2-acre site to make room for Northwell.
"This is the redevelopment of an outdated retail center into a thriving mixed-use center. By having the medical offices combined on the same site as the other retail uses, the people from the offices can help support the retail on the site … and it benefits the offices to be located near the retail services that are there,” said Brian Ferruggiari, spokesman for AVR Realty Co., the Yonkers-based owner of the property.
Northwell Health will be taking the entire 33,466-square-foot building where Behr’s Baby & Kids Furniture had been the biggest tenant, occupying about 18,000 square feet before the store closed in June 2016, he said.
The Northwell facility will offer imaging, orthopedic and physical rehabilitation services, Ferruggiari said.
A New Hyde Park-based nonprofit, Northwell Health is the largest health care provider in New York State.
“Northwell Health is committed to expanding, specialized services and compassionate care to Nassau County residents and is always evaluating how best to deliver care to the community. This includes the plan to build a new 33,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art health care facility at 1200-1250 Hicksville Rd.,” Northwell said.
The health care provider declined to provide more information, including its planned move-in date and employee numbers for the site.
Northwell already has a presence in Seaford with its Northwell Health Physician Partners Cardiology and Internal Medicine at Seaford, which is at 850 Hicksville Rd. and about a 3-minute drive from Calvert Manor.
AVR is almost done with the exterior renovation of Northwell’s Calvert Manor building, while the health care provider will do the interior work, he said.
Behr’s Baby & Kids Furniture closed in 2016, and a few of the smaller shops in the shopping center, including a dry cleaner, pizzeria and a children's learning center, left shortly afterward as their leases expired or owners retired, Ferruggiari said.
Three remaining businesses – Calvert Manor Bagels, Beautique Salon and TJ’s Cards & Lotto – are relocating to a new, approximately 5,000-square-foot building on the property. TJ’s already is open in the new building and the other two businesses will reopen in their new slots this month, Ferruggiari said.
AVR paid $5.5 million for the redevelopment of Calvert Manor, which included landscaping, some improvements on Hicksville Road, such as adding sidewalks and a pedestrian crossing, and creating more parking spaces by demolishing two free-standing buildings that held chicken and yogurt eateries years ago, he said.
Expect more essential businesses and service providers, such as medical offices, supermarkets and discount stores that sell groceries and household goods, to fill shopping center and mall vacancies.
Online competition was giving brick-and-mortar retail a run for its money for years before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in the first quarter of 2020. Mall and shopping center landlords thought they were addressing online competition by filling vacancies with non-store tenants, such as gyms, restaurants and entertainment venues, that weren’t susceptible to such competition.
But the pandemic compounded problems for brick-and-mortar retailers and caused financial losses for gyms, restaurants without drive-thru lanes and other nonessential businesses that were forced to close for months to help slow the spread of the virus.
There will be a record 20,000 to 25,000 permanent store closures in the United States in 2020, topping last year’s record of about 9,820 closings, according to estimates from Coresight Research, a Manhattan-based retail analysis provider.
Retail Roundup is a column about major retail news on Long Island — store openings, closings, expansions, acquisitions, etc. — that is published online and in the Monday paper. To read more of these columns, click here. If you have news to share, please send an email to Newsday reporter Tory N. Parrish at firstname.lastname@example.org.