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What are the best credit cards to use on Black Friday? Check out our top plastic picks to protect yourself from fraud, earn rewards, and more.
More By Penelope Graham:
Are there tough times ahead for today’s millennials? New studies find they face great financial challenges when starting a family and breaking into the housing market. Get the full story, plus this week’s top headlines.
Are you set for holiday debt season? This can be an especially expensive time of year for many Canadian families. Here’s how to cope.
What’s in store for November fixed and variable mortgage rates? Check out this month’s forecast from RateSupermarket.ca’s expert Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel.
The way we manage our money – from the bank branch to the checkout lane – is rapidly changing in Canada. New tap technology, automated investments and biotech solutions have traditional bankers scrambling to keep up – how can consumers navigate this ever-changing financial reality?
The Presidents Choice Financial World Elite MasterCard is the newest edition to the popular PC Points credit card suite. Check out our review to see if it’s right for your wallet.
It’s been a big week of change for our nation, as the Liberals swept a majority victory in the federal election. That means there’s plenty of new developments to come – for your savings, your taxes, and for the loonie.
Why is Apple Pay Canada only available via American Express cards? That the tech giant might be tangled with Canada’s big banks over interchange fees is a potential theory. Here are the details on the long-awaited payment app’s launch, and when Visa and MasterCard customers may get in on the action.
Ontario auto insurance rates dropped again in Q3, according to the latest from FSCO. This means drivers have even more opportunity to shop around for a better rate. Here’s what you should know if you’re on the hunt for car insurance.


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Aspen surveying online needs
Similar warnings are packed into the survey’s introduction: “While billions of dollars have already been invested in the 30 largest cities across America, it is apparent that the provision of Broadband, high-speed digital services to rural areas remains a low priority.” “Eighty-six percent of the high-speed Internet delivery capacity in the U.S. is concentrated in the 20 largest cities.” “Without broadband access, Aspen would miss out on telemedicine, distance learning, telecommuting, and the substantial productivity gains realized from e-commerce.” Collin points out that more and more enterprises are using the Internet for everything from ordering supplies to educating staff. The biggest challenge local businesses face is keeping up with their suppliers and competitors who have access to state-of-the-art relay equipment set up in Denver and other cities.
Collin makes no effort to be unbiased. The survey’s introduction points out the T-1 lines offered by U S West are expensive, and laments the fact that broadband service (similar to cell phone and paging technology) is available only in large cities.
The introduction includes a table comparing the different lengths of time it takes different kinds of access to download a three-hour movie, such as “Titanic.” While it takes a standard over-the-phone modem 42.5 hours to download the movie, it takes local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) access, a broadband system, only 18 minutes.
The survey itself asks people if their businesses and homes are located in direct line of one of four possible broadcast tower sites – the top of Little Nell, high on Red Mountain, the Smuggler Mountain platform or Shale Bluffs.
U S West spokeswoman Bonnie Pehl-Petersen said some of the movie-download times in Collin’s introduction are inaccurate. She also noted that U S West’s digital frame relay service was not included among the options listed in the introduction.
“Already Aspen, from a perspective of access to high-speed lines, has access to just about everything U S West offers,” she said.
Aspen City Manager Steve Barwick said the city plans to assess demand and then lure companies like Teledesic, which uses satellite links and NextLink – which uses LMDS – to set up shop in Aspen.
“What we’re trying to do is spur competition for high-speed Internet access,” he said.
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The Vietnamese coffee industry plans to increase the production of instant coffee, which generates higher profits for the national coffee sector. Coffee factories have sprouted in the country as both domestic and foreign businesses have poured into the sector said Nguyen Nam Hai, Deputy the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA), during a
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© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.
Pet Supermarket supports communities affected by Hurricane Ian
The Florida-based company will provide support to survivors and their pets in the state through donations
Pet Supermarket announced it is donating food and care supplies to help relieve some stress and burden off survivors of Hurricane Ian in Florida. On November 18-19, 2022, Pet Supermarkets and the Animal Welfare League of Charlotte County teamed up to bring truckloads of supplies to those in need.
“This hurricane has wreaked havoc on our service communities along the Gulf Coast,” said Allen McClard, CEO of Pet Supermarket, in an organizational release.1 “As a Florida-based organization, we’re proud to support our neighbors who’ve continued to care for pets in the face of heartbreaking loss.”
According to the release,1 some of the supplies delivered included bagged and canned food, pet beds, toys, treats, carriers, and gear for dogs, cats, and other small pets were delivered. Employees of Pet Supermarket also donated household items such as clothing and toiletries to help not only the pets but their owners.
The supplies then traveled 150 miles from Pet Supermarket’s headquarters in Sunrise, Florida to the Gulf Coast with help from its partners including Nulo, Midwest Homes for Pets, Petsport, and Coastal Pet Products, Inc. The partners also helped contribute some of the care and supplies Pet Supermarket was able to donate.
“Whenever a natural disaster impacts one of our communities, we are particularly struck by the plight of the pets and pet owners who endure loss, injury, displacement, and a complete disruption to their lives,” said Tara Whitehead, director of marketing & communications at MidWest Homes for Pets. “We thank Pet Supermarket for making an impact and for providing the channels that allowed us to assist.”
Along with this event, the company will deliver food and care supplies to the Gulf Coast Humane Society, which will ensure the donations are given to community members through daily deliveries and events at the shelter’s headquarters.
Pet Supermarket Supports Pets, Pet Parents and Communities Affected by Hurricane Ian. News release. Pet Supermarket. November 29, 2022. Accessed November 29, 2022.


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Victors & Spoils started two years ago as a group of Crispin Porter + Bogusky alums hellbent on transforming advertising by applying crowdsourcing principles. The shop set up a tech platform to open up creative briefs to hundreds, rather than just a few. Yesterday French holding company Havas announced its purchase of Victors & Spoils. John Winsor, a co-founder of V&S and the new chief innovation officer at Havas, spoke to Digiday about why Havas made sense and whether technology dooms agencies.
Why sell now?
I met [Havas CEO] David [Jones] at TED a few years ago. He said, “All the other holding company CEOs are at the end of their career. I’m 44 and I have to change. I’ve got to be part of the future.” He’s been super aggressive. We weren’t looking for new investors. I started thinking of this in 2003. It’s been amazing to see it come to fruition. We’ve always been dedicated to changing the way advertising’s been done. With David’s vision and our vision it seemed a good fit. It will give us a strategic advantage out there.
A recent ANA report has clients looking to cut agency fees even more. Is it hopeless for agencies to get out of the procurement trap?
Co-creation and crowdsourcing are all nice icing on technologies. Look at any creative industry — photography or even journalism. There are radical changes by technology allowing everyone to participate. It’s crazy. It’s only a matter of time when that comes true with advertising. Our goal has been to accelerate that as quickly as we can.
Does that mean a race to the bottom for agencies?
It’s just like the movie business. There’s massive distermediation. Agencies are going to have to accept the fact that the world is changing. They need to become proactive and part of the future solution or become obsolete. You’ve seen it with magazines and newspapers. I was talking to my dad last night. It was the 100th anniversary of the newspaper he ran for years. He said the circulation was down to what it was in 1922. It’s no different than when the car came around and people were still with buggies and whips.
The knock on crowdsourcing in the ad world is it cheapens the craft.
If you’re an art director and you look at the future technology and think about it, there’s a [previous] generation that did things a different way. They drew in a different way. There’s a generation before them that chiseled type. Each step change of technology I’m sure there was a feeling that it is demeaning to the craft, whether it’s typesetting or whatever. But it just changes it. My sense is it’s just what happens in the world.
So where’s that leave agencies?
Agencies need to think of what effect does tech have on their business and what do clients want. There are lots and lots of new ways to get people to spread messages about your products. A lot of those have to do with traditional advertising and more and more it’s about non-traditional advertising. My sense is there are going to be more and more crowdsourcing platforms. But the clients aren’t set up to take 1,000 ideas. They’re not ready for it. They need an agency that sits in the middle that can strategically direct a crowd of people. It’s definitely going to be more tech driven.
How EA plans to compete with Fortnite and Roblox in the metaverse
EA didn’t use the word “metaverse” a single time during its Q3 2023 earnings call — but the game developer has clearly taken note of the revenue-generating potential of virtual platforms powered by user-generated content, or UGC.
‘A shift in the marketplace’: Media agencies’ influence over programmatic is growing
The big media agencies are asking ad tech vendors to create tools they can use themselves to separate the wheat from the chaff in the open auction.
Tinuiti’s Q4 digital ads report shows soft pricing but promise for performance channels
Tinuiti's analysis of fourth-quarter activity shows most corners of the digital media landscape saw less than stellar financial results.
SponsoredWhy Best Buy Ads sees retail media as integral to its customer-centric purpose
Sponsored by Best Buy Ads Retail media networks have become critical for marketers, with retailers investing in ways that enable advertisers to engage consumers across online and offline channels. Given the wealth of retailers’ first-party customer data and measurement capabilities, retail media networks have become a natural fit for augmenting performance marketing programs. Alongside the […]
In the platforms’ arms race for creators, YouTube Shorts splashes the cash
The platform has lowered the eligibility threshold to earn from its Partner Program, meaning more creators can take advantage of its Shorts rev share deal
Brands extend inclusive marketing efforts beyond Black History Month
As more inclusive marketing becomes the norm, brands like IPSY, SiriusXM and Jack Daniels ramp up for Black History Month and beyond.


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Hyatt Hotels says its card payment systems were breached. It discovered the attack three weeks ago. Hyatt says malware infected its payment processing system at hotels it directly manages, not at its franchised units.
If you have stayed with Hyatt, review your credit-card statement right away for any unusual activity. Most card companies won’t hold you liable for fraudulent charges—and even if they do, the maximum you could get dinged is only $50, by law.
Investigators from FireEye are looking into the attack. No word yet on how many of Hyatt’s 318 hotels involved were affected, how long they were infected or if attackers stole card numbers. A call center rep said the malware was programmed to access cardholder names, numbers, expiration dates, and internal verification codes.
Hyatt joins Hilton and Starwood on the list of major hotel chains to be hit by hackers since October.
Raymond James lodging analyst William Crow notes that consumers no longer panic the way they did with the Target Black Friday breach two years ago, saying, “Consumers are understanding some of the risks … The ultimate shock reaction has worn off a bit here.”
Hyatt says it has fixed the problem and that customers can feel confident using their cards at its hotels.


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Ori and the Will of the Wisps gets a release date, Three years after the original reveal we'll finally get our hands on Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
Xbox E3 2019: Minecraft Dungeons has a release window, looks awesome, Ever wondered what Minecraft would look like if it was mashed up with Diablo?
The Twitter account of Darksiders has tweeted that the next piece of DLC for Darksiders 3 will release in July and is titled Keepers Of The Void.
The DLC is theorized to bridge the gap between Borderlands 2 and 3 and it’s set to release, according to the leak, during E3 week.
It’s the leaking season bay! Today we start with the unintentionally intentional leak of Darksiders Genesis; a top-down Action RPG where you’ll take the role of either Darksiders 1 protagonist ...[Read More]
Google had its first ‘Direct’ for Stadia and a lot of information, which probably should have been given when revealed, was finally released to the public. Let’s dive in. Google Stadia is ...[Read More]
The cat is in the suit and the suit is on another planet. The Gato Roboto Release Date Trailer is here in all its ‘purrfection’! How many cat puns can I fit in this small piece? Not so man...[Read More]
Due to the massive success of the latest John Wick installment 'John Wick 3: Parabellum' on cinemas, Fortnite has launched a brand new event called Wick's Bounty.
This fighting game has mad potential to be one of the wackiest and most fun titles of this year!
Time is running out, but goals are still coming! Rocky IV composer Vince DiCola appears as a goal on the Kingdom of Night Kickstarter.
For the past few days, Wired Productions has been teasing gamers on social media with talk of a free update to the already awesome racing game Grip which would apparently completely change the game. F...[Read More]


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Shopify has unveiled its “Winter ’23 Shopify Editions,” spelling out more than 100 new product additions and updates for merchants and developers ranging from faster checkouts and deliveries to search improvements.
Many of the new features are geared to enhance the shopping experience on the Shop app, increase engagement with brands, grow e-commerce revenues and provide merchants ways to customize their presence inside Shop.
Shop, Shopify’s consumer-facing app launched in 2020, enables consumers to browse and shop brands and retailers on Shopify.
Editions is Shopify’s biannual unveiling of new functions and features. Merchants have access to the offerings through their Shopify subscriptions, without any extra costs, though there is a separate cost for using the Shopify Fulfillment Network.
Among the biggest products launched: “Shop Minis,” a set of tools for Shopify’s ecosystem of 8,000 developer partners to integrate functionality from online store websites to the Shop app. For example, one of the first developer partners to use Shop Minis is a company called Stage Ten, a platform for livestream selling online. Stage Ten, through Shop Minis, has extended the livestreaming format from the existing online store app to the Shop app. Shop Minis enabled Stage Ten to put on a hip hop show live on the Shop app. The whole purpose of Shop Minis is to take the functionality that developer partners have built for online stores and extend that to Shop for mobile commerce.
Another tool just announced is “Shop Cash Campaigns, which advances Shopify’s Shop Cash loyalty program by enabling merchants to extend incentives, such as discounts, to their best customers.
In addition, Shopify has simplified and quickened its checkout experience. It was a three-page, slow-moving process; now it’s down to one page. Basically, after all of your credit card and shipping information is recorded, you basically just have to tap “buy.” With less friction in the checkout, there’s less opportunity for shoppers to forgo the purchase.
Shopify has also come up with ways for brands and merchants to better convey their image and aesthetics at checkout. That could be things like tweaking the logo or changing the color palette. According to Shopify, there are approximately 2 million merchants on its platform. The idea is to make their presence on Shop consistent to their own website.
The Shop app has also introduced tools to:
- Highlight bestsellers by automatically syncing them from the online store to the Shop app.
- Initiate upselling and perks early in the buying journey and not just at checkout, which many merchants do.
- Easier sign-ins through biometric pass keys for Android and Apple devices, utilizing facial or fingerprint recognition.
- Listing reviews from customers.
- Better tracking of merchandise through the supply chain.
With Deliverr, a two-day delivery company Shopify acquired last year, merchants have two ways to access the Shopify network: through the Shopify Fulfillment Network app and through the Deliverr portal, both of which feed into one physical network creating “a massive unlock” for merchants because it uses real-time data to move inventory along the supply chain so it’s closest to customers, so orders ship more efficiently, affordably and faster to customers. The intent is also to make fulfillment services accessible to smaller and growing merchants that are typically self-shippers.
“Not even a year ago we launched our first Edition, and now our Winter ‘23 Edition showcases over a hundred more products and features we’ve built in the last six months alone,” said Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify. “We need to be the fastest-moving commerce company in the world because our merchants depend on Shopify’s innovation for their own longevity. So with this edition, we moved quickly to offer tools that help merchants access the promise of mobile commerce, meet customer expectations for seamless checkout and fast delivery, and convert better — it’s the best version of Shopify yet, and will shape the future of entrepreneurship.”
According to Shopify, the Shop app hosts more than 1 million consumers and many are looking for more ways to engage with brands, browse products and shop on mobile. Editions provides merchants with greater control to customize their stores inside Shop, whether that means tweaking the color of a logo or its background, to adding or subtracting categories or switching the order in which they appear.


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The first UK Cloud awards are to be sponsored by Ingram Micro UK.
The awards have been created by the Cloud Industry Forum in conjunction with techUK and Cloud Pro.
The jamboree is set to take place in February 2014, giving gongs to vendors, customers and individuals notable for pushing the edge of the cloud industry. more»
German Voice over IP phone company Innovaphone says it has signed up Ingram to distribute its products through Europe.
The aim is to use Ingram’s Micro Unified division to sell its VOiP Unified Communication Solutions products.
Ingram senior manager Cristophe Mory said that the firm’s products are easy to use and will provide its customers – resellers – with a “best of breed” communication tool. more»
Mega distributor Ingram sold $10.2 billion worth of kit worldwide in its third financial quarter, and made net profit of $599 millions.
That means its gross margin jumped from 5.02 percent in the same quarter last year to 5.90 percent for this year’s third quarter. more»
Ingram Micro and cloud provider Outsourcery have conjured up a new cloud service designed specifically for Ingram Micro’s partners and customers.
Under the arrangement, Ingram Micro partners will sell Outsourcery’s hosted version of Microsoft Lync, with enterprise-grade services and unified functionality delivered from the cloud. more»
Ingram Micro has rolled out a new app designed to help Kiwi resellers respond more quickly to customer needs, while at the same time making their lives just a bit easier. The app is available for iOS and Android devices, no word on WP8 or BB10 support just yet. more»
Ingram Micro Mobility is looking into the possibility of launching its own MVNO, which could help it fuel further mobile growth in the UK. Ingram Micro’s UK and Ireland VP James Bannister told Mobile News that the company is actively looking for new ways to boost mobile revenue. more»
Earlier this month Ingram Micro announced plans to reshuffle its global management team. The changes are set to go into effect in August and they will see Gerhard Schulz promoted to senior executive vice president and president, Europe.
Schulz currently serves as senior vice president, central and eastern Europe and on Wednesday the company announced that he will be succeeded by Marcus Adae, the current sales chief of Ingram Germany. more»
In a deal which is aimed at expanding the availability for Pro AV, Commercial Connectivity gear, C2G has partnered with Ingram Micro UK.
C2G peddles high performance cabling and connectivity gear and the partnership is signed with Ingram Micro’s Pro AV Division in the UK. more»
Ingram Micro is reshuffling its executive leadership team and the changes will affect most markets and all continents. The changes will go into effect 1 August, apart from changes in Latin America, beginning in January 2014.
Ingram Micro CEO Alain Monie said the changes are designed to “take full advantage of the diverse and complementary experience, tenure and skill sets” of the company’s senior execs. more»
Ingram Micro has had gained another client Down Under, signing on the dotted line with communications company Jabra.
As part of the partnership Ingram Micro will be responsible for distributing the company’s range of call centre and office products within the Australian and New Zealand market. more»
Ingram Micro has rung up another deal in the mobile market.
The distie’s Mobility arm has announced that it will carry and sell Samsung Mobile smartphone and tablet accessory products in the States, which it claims will continue its strategy to become a firm player in the mobile market. more»
Ingram Micro has opened its doors to 350 channel partners from across the globe.
The distie has hosted what it claimed is its first International Solutions Partner Invitational in Hollywood.
The event, which began on 8 May and runs until today saw partners fly in from North America and Latin America, as well as Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. more»
Ingram Micro saw a relatively successful first quarter of 2013.
The distie reported global sales of $10.26 billion, up 19 percent compared with $8.64 billion in the first quarter last year.
The company said its 2012 fourth quarter acquisitions of Brightpoint and Aptec added $1.1 billion and $75 million, respectively, to its first quarter revenue, contributing 13 percent to the growth. more»
Ingram Micro has announced that one of its staff members has been named as one of the “Most Powerful & Influential Women” by the California Diversity Council (CADC).
Robyn Tingley, vice president, Human Resources for Ingram Micro North America and Latin America, has been awarded the title and will also be speaking on a panel at the conference titled “Gaining the Trust and Credibility You Deserve.”
Ingram Micro is of course thrilled at the publicity and bigged up Robyn by claiming she has been a significant contributor on a wide range of inclusion and diversity issues including minority recruiting, veteran hiring and developing a workplace that is educated and aware of all aspects of diversity and inclusion. more»
Ingram Micro has appointed Gina Mastantuono as executive vice president of finance.
Mastantuono will now be responsible for the company’s financial planning, analysis, controllership, SEC reporting, treasury and tax and will report directly to Bill Humes , chief operating and financial officer at Ingram Micro. more»


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The Farmers' Markets in Thornbury and Flesherton are currently waiting for the green light from public health before they can commit to an opening day weekend.
“We would like our customers to be patient,” said Ron Barnett, market manager for both the Thornbury and Flesherton farmers’ markets. “Public Health is trying to do what’s best for us. The COVID-19 third wave has come at a most inconvenient time for us, but it is what it is.”
Both markets are hosted on municipal property and both municipalities require public health approval before allowing the markets to operate.
According to Barnett, plans for both markets were sent to the Grey Bruce Health Unit last Wednesday and organizers are now waiting for final approval before going ahead with the season.
“The plans were for full-shop markets with COVID-19 safety protocols, which include mandatory mask-wearing for vendors and encouraged mask-wearing for customers with free masks available to all,” he said.
Similar to last year, the markets will also operate with a one-way traffic flow, which leads customers around the market with social distancing measures in effect.
Barnett explained that there will also be greeters screening for symptoms at the entrance to the markets.
“We want to open as early as possible. In the meantime, Flesherton Farmers’ Market will hold weekly curbside plant sales at Leela’s Villa Inn each Saturday until we can open the market again,” Barnett said.
Once in operation, Barnett expects both markets to offer a full roster of food and non-food items.
“Both markets have had a lot of interest from vendors and each should be bigger and better markets over last year with more selection, more locally-grown produce, new vendors,” he said.
Each market is currently expected to host 24 vendors. However, Barnett noted that both markets are always open and looking for new vendors - especially primary or grower/producer vendors.
Jennifer Golletz, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, CollingwoodToday.ca


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Naira has fallen above ₦660/$1 on the black market with a new exchange rate emerging.
According to reports, the Nigerian official currency, naira has fallen massively weeks after a steady rate which saw the Nigerian currency trading at N615 per $1 at the parallel market otherwise known as the black market.
After a survey was conducted at the Bureau De Change (BDC) market in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, on Monday evening, July 25, 2022, showed that the naira to USD exchanged at N665/$1, a day after 1 dollar to naira exchanged at N658/$1 and weeks after usd to naira exchanged for N615/$1.
While the speculators were hoping to see a further crash of dollars to naira after the primaries of top political parties in Nigeria, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the reverse is the case as the naira trades at N665/$1 at the parallel market otherwise known as the black market as against the N658/$1 it traded yesterday, July 24 and N615/$1 it traded at the beginning of last week.
Naira Falls Massively At Black Market (See New Exchange Rate)
This shows that the Naira lost N50 between Monday, July 18 when the dollar naira traded at N615/$1, and today, Monday, July 25 that the naira to dollar opened at N665/$1.
The local currency opened at N665.00 per $1 at the parallel market otherwise known as the black market today Monday, 25 July 2022, in Lagos Nigeria, after it closed at N658.00 per $1 on Sunday, 24 July 2022.
In the black market, the players buy a dollar for N660 and sell for N665 on Monday morning, July 25, 2022, after they bought N655 and sold for N658 yesterday, Sunday, July 24.
On why there are different rates in the foreign exchange market by the dealers, the President of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators (ABCON), Aminu Gwadebe, who questioned some of the rates being quoted in the market said: ‘’Because the market is a disorganized market as well as the demand too. So what I am telling you is that uncertainty is the cause. It also depends on the market you are taking from. For instance, if you are buying from Abuja, Abuja is not as competitive as Lagos in terms of pricing.”
He also explained the reasons for the difference between the rates in different cities, especially between Abuja and Lagos.
“Most of the time they buy low and sell high. You know environment goes a long way to determine whatever activity is going on there, but we in Lagos, we buy high and sell high, and over there (in Abuja) they buy low and sell high.”
‘’The liquidity here (Lagos) is fine, the demand here is moderately business driven because you have importers and so on. Also if you call in from Abuja, I will give you politician rate and their rates are higher.’’


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The council has a skilled team of business advisors who are well-positioned to support businesses during these unprecedented economic times.
Business support teams will endeavour to help match business redundancies made in the city as a result of coronavirus pressures to opportunities that have arisen during the pandemic.
The council’s business support teams will provide advice and guidance on safe ways of working for any business-owners or staff members in the city who are concerned about taking the next step back to work. Advice is now available on what grants, loans and furlough option are available to individual businesses.
Councillor Darren Hale, deputy leader of Hull City Council, said: “Business-people in Hull and the Humber will no doubt be experiencing some of the toughest times they have ever faced. It is vital that businesses of all sizes are helped to get through this difficult period so our economy can continue to flourish when we get through this.
“We are urging businesses in the region to contact our specialist business support team to find out what support is available to them.”
The council’s business support team is available through two points of contact. Those with access to email should contact email@example.com or call 01482 300301 during business hours.
Find more information about support available to Hull businesses at the council's website.


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Launceston Invention Convention wheels out the long road ahead
15/06/2012 , 3:14 PM by Chris Ball
A dozen of Launceston's brightest students have spent the last three days developing their skill and ideas to be the next top inventors in the country. They are discovering that some inventions take years of work of thought, design and development. Other inventions can be small but have significant impact on our working lives.
Simon Williams with his electric trike has spent years developing his idea, even taking on a job as a postie to get experience on a bike.
Simon outlined his invention journey to the keen students of science. Local inventor Manfred Jokuszies was also on hand to reveal that even local ideas can get a look on the world stage. He is currently trialling a new coffee tamper on the American market.
Hilary Burden visited the "classroom" to find a lot of people eager to try the trike and a special electric skateboard. Simon may be an expert on his trike, but needs a little help to stay on the skateboard....


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European Shares Seen Up After China Data
(RTTNews) - European stocks are likely to open higher on Monday as investors put trade issues on the back burner and cheered official data showing that China's factory activity returned to growth in November for the first time in seven months.
A private survey of Chinese factory activity in November released today also came in stronger than expected, offering a glimmer of hope that the world's second-largest economy may be able to hold in check its slide toward sub-6% growth.
Asian markets moved higher, though a U.S.-China trade deal remained elusive ahead of Dec. 15, when additional tariffs on Chinese exports to the U.S. are set to go into effect.
Axios reported Sunday, citing sources that the interim U.S.-China trade deal is now "stalled because of Hong Kong legislation" and a "phase one" agreement would only happen "year-end at the earliest."
Separately, China's Global Times reported that Beijing wants a rollback of tariffs in the phase one trade deal that the two economic powerhouses are aiming to reach.
Gold prices dipped on a firmer dollar while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures jumped around 1.7 percent after plunging more than 5 percent on Friday.
Final factory Purchasing Managers' survey data from euro area and the U.K. are due later in the day, headlining a light day for the European economic news.
U.S. stocks ended a holiday-shortened session lower on Friday amid increased U.S.-China trade friction after Beijing said it would take strong counter-measures in response to the U.S. interference in China's internal affairs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 dropped around 0.4 percent while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed half a percent.
European markets also fell on Friday after reports suggested that China is considering to put the drafters of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on its no-entry list.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index gave up 0.4 percent. The German DAX and France's CAC 40 index both edged down around 0.1 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 declined 0.9 percent.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.


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Pakistan blocked access on February 23, 2008, because of "offensive material" towards the Islamic faith, including display of the Danish cartoons of Muhammad. This led to a near global blackout of the YouTube site for around two hours, as the Pakistani block was inadvertently transferred to other countries. On February 26, 2008, the ban was lifted after the website had removed the objectionable content from its servers at the request of the government. Many Pakistanis circumvented the three-day block by using virtual private network software. In May 2010, following the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, Pakistan again blocked access to YouTube, citing "growing sacrilegious content". The ban was lifted on May 27, 2010, after the website removed the objectionable content from its servers at the request of the government. However, individual videos deemed offensive to Muslims posted on YouTube will continue to be blocked. Pakistan again placed a ban on YouTube in September 2012, after the site refused to remove the film Innocence of Muslims, with the ban still in operation as of September 2013. The ban was lifted in January 2016 after YouTube launched a Pakistan-specific version.
Some YouTube videos have themselves had a direct effect on world events, such as Innocence of Muslims (2012) which spurred protests and related anti-American violence internationally. TED curator Chris Anderson described a phenomenon by which geographically distributed individuals in a certain field share their independently developed skills in YouTube videos, thus challenging others to improve their own skills, and spurring invention and evolution in that field. Journalist Virginia Heffernan stated in The New York Times that such videos have "surprising implications" for the dissemination of culture and even the future of classical music.
In this video Sean Cannell from Think Media shares tips how to grow your youtube channel and advice on how to grow your youtube channel fast. If you are wondering how to grow your youtube channel fast in 2018 and you want to grow your youtube channel, check out this video. People wonder how to make your youtube channel grow faster and that is hard to do without a youtube channel growth strategy. So check out these youtube channel growth tips for 2018!
Have you ever watched a YouTube star’s video and thought, I could’ve done that? Me neither. Out of all the influencer platforms, YouTube strikes me as the most intimidating. But it can also be the most lucrative, with top YouTubers earning well into the six figures from advertising revenue alone. And this pie is only getting expanding: YouTube recently reported that the number of users earning over $100,000 on the platform has increased by more than 40 percent annually; currently, 75 percent more channels have surpassed a million subscribers versus last year.
In 2013, YouTube introduced an option for channels with at least a thousand subscribers to require a paid subscription in order for viewers to watch videos. In April 2017, YouTube set an eligibility requirement of 10,000 lifetime views for a paid subscription. On January 16, 2018, the eligibility requirement for monetization was changed to 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. The move was seen as an attempt to ensure that videos being monetized did not lead to controversy, but was criticized for penalizing smaller YouTube channels.
There was some backlash over these new benchmarks, but frankly, the vast majority of people who lost their monetization privileges weren’t earning much anyway. Most channels make somewhere between $1.50 and $3 per thousand views, depending on their content and audience, and Google won’t even cut a paycheck for under $100 (or roughly 50,000 views — a pretty tall order for the average 14-year-old posting eyeliner tutorials). In other words, if you were looking for an easy side gig, YouTube was never the efficient choice.
Before you can start getting paid, you'll need to reach the payment threshold. This varies depending on your currency. In the US, the payment threshold is $100. This means you'll need to earn $100 before you can start collecting any money. If you've hit your payment threshold, you'll be paid around the 21st of every month. If you didn't meet the threshold, that money will be rolled over into next month's amount.
Alternatively, you can partner with an existing merchandising network for creators such as DFTBA (Don’t Forget to Be Awesome). However, you'll be competing with other YouTubers in a marketplace and have less control over adding products, offering discounts, integrating your content, and all the advantages that come with owning your own ecommerce site.
They could even offer faster encoders for people uploading videos to youtube so it didn’t take so long as a premium feature and I think a lot of streamers would pay a few bucks to have more control over their stream. I’ve never really put much thought into it but I’m sure they could do a whole bunch of things before they resort to the need to make youtube suck in order to keep the lights on.
You will first have to build up your YouTube platform to gain more followers. While it is by no means a science to instantly get thousands of subscribers or views, by posting frequently, promoting your videos, and paying attention to engagement and demographics, you can see what performs well and curate your content to what your viewers seem to like.
Facebook and Twitter could pose new challenges to YouTube, because those social networks are creating their own video services. “If YouTube wants to move towards strong profitability, or to be profitable, they are gong to have to take that advertising and make it part of any actual programming,” Bajarin said. “And one way to have control over all that is to create their own content.”
Infrastructure costs -- The concept of free user services and scaling to eventually make them pay depends on the negligible price of adding additional consumers. But video is demanding of bandwidth and storage. Even if those are cheap in general, once you're handling as much material as the service does, it means big expenses for infrastructure. Although those costs won't scale linearly with the increased number of users, they do grow.
Broadcasters snipe at the quality of YouTube's videos, aiming to hold on to TV advertising. Competing in subscription-based services vs. the likes of Netflix and Hulu would take big content investments. Not knowing YouTube's costs, margins or growth history will make it hard to gauge how it's meeting the challenges -- and the potential for a blow to its value to Alphabet, whose overall market capitalization approaches $500 billion. Alphabet stock closed Friday at 747.60, up 1.5%.
YouTube is pulling in plenty of dollars – 4 billion of them in 2014, up by a billion on 2013 – but it’s also spending it like there’s no tomorrow. People “familiar with its financials” told the Wall Street Journal this week that after forking out for original content and also the infrastructure to keep the whole shebang going, the company is just about breaking even.
On February 28, 2017, in a press announcement held at YouTube Space Los Angeles, YouTube announced the launch of YouTube TV, an over-the-top MVPD-style subscription service that would be available for United States customers at a price of US$35 per month. Initially launching in five major markets (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco) on April 5, 2017, the service offers live streams of programming from the five major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox and NBC), as well as approximately 40 cable channels owned by the corporate parents of those networks, The Walt Disney Company, CBS Corporation, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal and Turner Broadcasting System (including among others Bravo, USA Network, Syfy, Disney Channel, CNN, Cartoon Network, E!, Fox Sports 1, Freeform, FX and ESPN). Subscribers can also receive Showtime and Fox Soccer Plus as optional add-ons for an extra fee, and can access YouTube Premium original content (YouTube TV does not include a YouTube Red subscription).
Maybe better or more refined solutions exist, but if the history of children’s television teaches us anything, it’s that the market alone will not generate the best outcomes for kids. Nor is the United States government likely to demand change, at least not without prompting. Heroes will have to emerge to push for change in the new YouTube’d world, just as they did in the early days of broadcast children’s TV. And not all of those heroes will come from the Western world. They’ll come from all over the globe, maybe even Chennai.
7. Turn to crowdfunding: There are two primary types of crowdfunding: recurring and project-based. Recurring crowdfunding lets contributors pay an amount they specify on a regular schedule. You’d want to maximize this type of funding in order to turn a channel into a substantial income stream. Incentives such as one-on-one video chats, private classes or merchandise can entice viewers to sign up.
The good news is that income is rising, but efforts to generate a broad and loyal audience that turn to the service on a regular basis for original content appear to have hit a wall. The Journal points out how three years ago YouTube spent hundreds of millions of dollars on original content to build new channels, only to see many of them fail. Getting people to visit the site directly and regularly because there’s something specific they want to see, rather than dropping by occasionally via a link on another site or online service, appears to be a big challenge for the company.
If streaming video followed the broadcast model, YouTube—in partnership with governments around the world—could also subsidize research into creating educational content specifically for YouTube, and into how best to deliver it to children. The company could invest in research to develop the best quantitative signals for educational programming, so it could recommend that programming to viewers its algorithm believes to be children. It could fund new educational programming, just as broadcasters have been required to do for decades. (“We are always looking for ways to build the educational content offering in the app in a way that’s really fun and engaging for kids,” Ducard said.)
Because of the time you're allotted with this ad format, it's suggested that you create this type of ad with the goal of views and brand development, rather than just clicks into your website. This ad ideally generates revenue from the long-term brand awareness that comes out of a story people don't want to skip, and one viewers remember the next time they approach your product or service.
Libya blocked access on January 24, 2010, because of videos that featured demonstrations in the city of Benghazi by families of detainees who were killed in Abu Salim prison in 1996, and videos of family members of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at parties. The blocking was criticized by Human Rights Watch. In November 2011, after the Libyan Civil War, YouTube was once again allowed in Libya.
All the estimates by research firms and analysts, says Kirjner, are "based more on belief and anecdotes than on truly representative data. What's more -- beyond anecdotes either shared by Google or collected through discussions with ad buyers, creators and multichannel network operators -- we know very little about what is available on YouTube, what people watch and how much it gets watched."
YouTube originally offered videos at only one quality level, displayed at a resolution of 320×240 pixels using the Sorenson Spark codec (a variant of H.263), with mono MP3 audio. In June 2007, YouTube added an option to watch videos in 3GP format on mobile phones. In March 2008, a high-quality mode was added, which increased the resolution to 480×360 pixels. In November 2008, 720p HD support was added. At the time of the 720p launch, the YouTube player was changed from a 4:3 aspect ratio to a widescreen 16:9. With this new feature, YouTube began a switchover to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC as its default video compression format. In November 2009, 1080p HD support was added. In July 2010, YouTube announced that it had launched a range of videos in 4K format, which allows a resolution of up to 4096×3072 pixels. In June 2015, support for 8K resolution was added, with the videos playing at 7680×4320 pixels. In November 2016, support for HDR video was added which can be encoded with Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) or Perceptual Quantizer (PQ). HDR video can be encoded with the Rec. 2020 color space.


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Apple announced on Tuesday that it will release a new Tap to Pay feature for iPhone that allows people to buy goods from merchants by tapping their phones together. It also works with contactless credit cards.
The announcement effectively turns iPhones into point-of-sale terminals without additional hardware. Block, whose first major product was a smartphone dongle that allowed merchants to accept credit card payments, dropped just over 2% in trading on Tuesday.
Apple said that Stripe would be the first payment operator to offer the service, and it would be integrated into Shopify’s point-of-sale product. Shopify stock was flat on Tuesday.
The service will use the iPhone’s NFC chip, and will also accept Apple Pay. It will accept Visa, American Express, Mastercard, and Discover.
The announcement is the latest move from Apple into the financial services industry. It currently operates Apple Pay, a contactless payment service, Apple Pay Cash, a peer-to-peer payments service, and Apple Card, an iPhone app-oriented credit card operated in conjunction with Goldman Sachs.
Apple reported $68.43 billion in services revenue for its fiscal 2021, which ended in September. Apple Pay and the Apple Card are components of its services segment.
Apple said the feature would be accessed through third-party apps, which will be released later this year. Other payment companies and app developers will be able to develop apps that access the tap-to-pay feature in a forthcoming version of iOS, the iPhone operating system.


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CHICAGO Clarity Coverdale Fury took home best of show honors Thursday night at the Minneapolis Advertising Federation's annual creative awards competition for its radio campaign on behalf of the state's efforts at curbing teen smoking.
The radio campaign, for the State of Minnesota's Target Market initiative, is aimed at stopping teens from smoking. The spots featured "man-on-the-street" interviews in which he asked teens what they would do for millions of dollars, equivalent to the pay received by tobacco executives. "Would you eat live rodents?" and "Would you wear a mullet for the rest of you life?" were among the questions. The ads conclude with the question of whether they would be willing to sell a product proven to kill its customers.
Though the $100 million shop had never won top honors at the Minneapolis show, the campaign also captured honors at the Radio Mercury Awards. CCF also took home 10 gold MAFA awards, tying with Kruskopf Olson for the most gold awards won by an agency. KO won its awards for work for local restaurant chain Fuji-ya.
"I could have listened to this campaign over and over [and we did]," said Carol Henderson, creative director and partner at McKee Wallwork Henderson Advertising in Albuquerque, N.M., and one of the judge's of this year's competition, in a statement. "To take such a well-worn road as anti-tobacco messages and do something truly interesting, thought-provoking, funny and fresh was the high point of the entire show for me."
The MAFA presented a total of 355 awards. Carmichael Lynch earned the most, with 54. Periscope went home with 31 prizes.


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Samsung expects to use existing hardware to release 30nm NAND chips
The South Korean company Samsung Electronics was the first in the world to manufacture a 64 Gbit MLC NAND flash memory chip using the “30 nm class” process technology. According to the manufacturer, this is a major step forward in increasing storage density in flash-based solutions for PCs and consumer electronics.
For example, by combining 16 such chips, you can get a memory card with a capacity of 128 GB. The company estimates that this capacity is enough to store 80 movies or 32,000 songs.
The key to the production of the novelty was the use of a new technological process, called “double patterning with self-alignment” (self-aligned double patterning technology, SaDPT). A feature of this process is the two-stage formation of structures on the surface of the plate. Application of SaDPT eliminates the bottleneck in the transition to structures less than 30 nm by expanding the capabilities of traditional lithography.
In other words, Samsung believes that SaDPT will make it possible to use the available lithography equipment to produce chips at rates around 30 nm. The commercial release of such products is planned to be deployed by the beginning of 2021.
The scale of development is evidenced by the following fact – the company has filed 30 applications for patents, one way or another related to the new memory chip. This is no coincidence, because the use of existing equipment will not only speed up the development of new standards, but also significantly reduce the associated costs.
At the same time, Samsung announced the availability of a 32 Gb SLC NAND chip, also created using SaDPT.
Source: Samsung Electronics


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Landis+Gyr has reached an agreement with private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners to acquire an Australian company managing smart meters.
Landis+Gyr and Pacific Equity Partners have joined to form intelliHUB Holdings, a company that will acquire Acumen from Australian retailer Origin Energy.
To date, Acumen manages some 170,000 smart meters and is contracted with its owner to add more smart meters across Australia.
The acquisition is expected to close in the coming few months.
IntelliHUB business was initially established by Landis+Gyr in 2015 under efforts by the company to prepare for mass rollout of smart meters in Australia as well as expanding the company’s footprint in the Asia-Pacific region.
Landis+Gyr says it is confident its acquisition of Acumen will help expand its role in deploying eight million smart meters set to be deployed in Australia.
This includes a five year contract between Landis+Gyr and intelliHUB for the provision and installation of approximately 800,000 smart meters to be deployed across Australia and New Zealand.
The company will be contributing both cash and its intelliHUB business with a combined equity value of up $57 million towards the rollout.
In total, intelliHUB has raised AUD 500 million in capaital towards rollout of smart meters. The capital raised includes PEP’s new AUD 1 billion Secure Assets Fund and a banking consortium of eight leading Australian and global financial institutions.
The integrated intelliHUB and Acumen brand will focus on all facets of residential, consumer and industrial, embedded networks and solar metering services.
Richard Mora, Landis+Gyr’s CEO, said: “With deep international experience and having supplied more than two million of the 2.9 million smart meters in Victoria, Landis+Gyr has deep knowledge of the Australian market and consumer expectations.”
“In the Power of Choice market structure, bringing together two industry leaders is an ideal solution to meeting customers’ requirements. We are very pleased to have partnered with PEP on this acquisition and we are excited to continue to deliver market leading service across the nation and helping consumers better manage their energy,” Mora concluded.
Cameron Blanks, Managing Director at PEP, said: “The Australian market is just commencing a major widespread deployment of smart metering technology. This requires experienced partners that are acutely focused on the customer experience and getting the most out of this once in a generation technology refresh.
“We have partnered with Landis+Gyr and we believe this business will create an independent and differentiated experience for energy retailers, providing an exceptional rollout experience with the global leader in metering innovation.”


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When Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is finalized, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick could earn a $22 million stock bonus if the Workplace Responsibility Committee concludes the video game company’s corporate culture has dramatically improved. According to a regulator filing, Kotick, who founded Activision in 1986, will get the stock bonus if he accomplishes “transformational gender-related goals and other commitments.”
According to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Kotick’s future at Activision Blizzard — he helped successfully engineer the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games in 2008 — is still unclear. In addition, it states that Kotick’s contract could be drawn out 12 months beyond its current March 2023 expiration.
What Is the Workplace Responsibility Committee?
Activision Blizzard’s board of directors created the Workplace Responsibility Committee in November 2021 to monitor progress in implementing and upholding any new procedures, policies, and/or commitments made by the video game publisher to make the workplace a more inclusive, safer, and fairer professional environment.
A Look at Activision’s New Policies
Activision Blizzard’s Workplace Responsibility Committee has the final say as to whether the video game giant is getting on with “appropriate progress” concerning the achievement of its goals.
Those goals included:
- Increasing visibility on pay equity.
- Investing $250 million to fast-track opportunities for diverse talent.
- Abdicating arbitration of individual sexual harassment claims.
- Forming a zero-tolerance harassment policy.
- Raising the percentage of nonbinary people and women by 50% in the Activision Blizzard workforce.
Microsoft’s Plans for Activision Blizzard’s Future
In January, Microsoft announced its plans to spend $68.7 billion to buy Activision. The purchase will help bolster Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division and is expected to improve the workplace environment at the video game holding company, which is based in Santa Monica, California.
Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, said the company will ensure it has the best people in each role once the merger is finalized. “We’re looking to the leadership team at Activision Blizzard today to make culture and workplace safety a top priority every single day, until the day when this deal hopefully closes. And then we’ll take over, and we need to make that same commitment,” says Smith. “There will be some aspects that will change, but it will all be one new team that will work together. And most importantly, we want to see the culture evolve, and we will see how people perform between now and the day this closes, assuming it is approved.”
Microsoft Gaming CEO and future Activision CEO Phil Spencer is expected to take over for the Activision CEO once the merger is finished. According to Smith, their focus is on improving company culture across the board. “We will have the opportunity to make sure that we have the right people in the right position,” Smith notes.
According to the SEC filings, Spencer and Kotick talked on the phone on Nov. 19, 2021. During that call, Spencer told Kotick “Microsoft was interested in discussing strategic opportunities” between Blizzard Activision and Microsoft and asked if he would have time to discuss such matters with Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, the following day. At least four other unnamed companies also contacted the video game publisher about a possible merger.


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Hewlett-Packard sales fall short of forecasts
Computer firm Hewlett-Packard has seen a drop in first-quarter sales, as it attempts to turn itself around under new chief executive Meg Whitman.
Revenues for the three months to the end of January fell 7% on a year earlier to $30bn (£19bn). Analysts had forecast revenues of $30.67bn.
Net profit for the quarter nearly halved from $2.6bn to $1.5bn.
The fiscal first quarter was the first full period under Ms Whitman, who replaced Leo Apotheker in September.
HP saw sales decline in its key units of PCs and printers.
"In the first quarter, we delivered on our Q1 outlook and remained focused on the fundamentals to drive long-term sustainable returns," said Ms Whitman.
"We are taking the necessary steps to improve execution, increase effectiveness and capitalise on emerging opportunities to reassert HP's technology leadership."
The company's shares fell 2% in after-hours trading in New York.
On Tuesday, PC maker Dell reported an 18% fall in quarterly profit and forecast a drop in sales in the current quarter.


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What happens when fewer companies control the entire rail industry?
For over a century, unionized American railroads have provided millions of well-paying jobs and served as a backbone for communities across the country.
For generations, unionized jobs tasked with building, operating and maintaining our freight and passenger railroads (plus shipping and logistics industries) have provided workers and their families with fair pay and dependable long-term employment.
America’s railroad system has undergone decades of consolidation. The system reached its peak a hundred years ago and both trackage and employment have consistently declined since. While change is inevitable, the recent accelerated pace of consolidation has defied reasonable expectations.
Fifty years ago, our country had 63 Class I railroads; now we have seven. The “Big Seven” own or operate virtually all the long-distance track and determine when passenger trains may pass, with four of the seven controlling 83 percent of America’s rail freight. If the pending $30 billion merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern is approved, the Big Seven will become the Bigger Six.
Across industries, consolidation has led to higher prices, worse service and reduced customer choice. We’ve seen it happen in telecommunications, where a few enormous companies now control cellular and land communications services across the nation. We’ve seen it in media and entertainment,where a few conglomerates own almost every company that makes the content you see on your screens. Most of all, we’ve seen it in Big Tech, where four or five companies — you know their names — dominate everything about your online life, from how you search, use social media, to how you get your online purchases.
What happens when fewer and fewer companies control an entire industry, as the Biden administration is considering letting happen now with railroad freight? Three things:
1) As they eliminate competition, surviving companies are empowered to hike prices, even as consumers are left with fewer alternatives. In the upper Midwest, where the non-viability of waterway shipping makes industry dependent on rail, consolidation has led shippers to reportedly pay twice the rates charged elsewhere in America. This has led to hundreds of price-fixing lawsuits against the Big Seven in recent years.
2) Companies with longer networks and the capacity to serve larger contracts tend to prioritize long-distance and high-volume customers, which gives unfair preference to big corporate customers. For manufacturers, shipping is not an optional cost: When local manufacturers are forced to deal with giant rail conglomerates that can charge whatever they want, we put their businesses, the communities they serve and the supply chain at risk.
These reasons alone are enough to make railroad industry consolidation deeply alarming, which is why a wide range of industry groups are on record expressing their concerns about the KC Southern and Canadian Pacific merger.
3) But there’s a third reason to be alarmed by our shrinking railroad industry: Its impact on families who’ve built their lives around secure, well-paying jobs in the sector.
As the Big Seven face competition internationally and from other shipping modes, they are trying to squeeze every possible drop of profit out of their railroads, putting these cherished jobs and communities that depend on them on the chopping block if action isn’t taken.
The Big Seven have adopted tactics such as precision scheduled railroading (PSR), a scheduling approach that maintains service between busy city-to-city pairs at the cost of flexibility and reliability, especially for smaller shippers on lower-traffic routes. Most routes have no competition nowadays, and if your railroad says you have to wait, you have no choice but do so while your inventory sits in a warehouse costing you money.
According to the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB), which regulates freight rail, the industry has cut almost one-third of its headcount in just six years. STB chair Martin Oberman stated at an April hearing that “in my view, all of this has directly contributed to where we are today – rail users experiencing serious deteriorations in rail service because, on too many parts of their networks, the railroads simply do not have a sufficient number of employees.” The STB knows the railroad sector better than anyone, and Americans should listen to the agency’s warning that our railroads have cut their employees too deeply to provide safe and reliable service.
The disproportionate market power created by rail consolidation doesn’t just put railroad jobs at risk, but also other well-paying jobs in other crucial sectors, such as ports jobs Canadian Pacific has admitted that some of the growth that the proposed merger could generate would harm competing U.S. ocean ports. Workers in the ports of Seattle and Tacoma expect that if their port becomes too expensive, most of that cargo will shift north to cheaper Canadian alternatives.
Our nation can’t maintain its global competitiveness without a healthy freight logistics sector, which includes safely operated and sufficiently staffed railroads. If our nation is serious about supporting small businesses (President Biden issued an executive order about it a year ago), it can’t let one company control of a rail corridor running west to east across Canada, north to south through the middle of the U.S., and deep into Mexico’s industrial heartland.
Matt Kent is a competition policy advocate with expertise in antitrust law and the effects of industry concentration at Public Citizen, a national consumer advocacy organization. He is a former specialist in transportation policy in the maritime sector.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Here's a quick summary of the top stories on charismanews.com:
Major corporations are suffering through massive financial setbacks from boycotts.
The Bud Light brand performed what some are calling the worst marketing campaign in history, while Target is now enduring an even greater falling out from a large section of their customer base.
Not wanting to fall into the same pit of boycotts and media attention that has gripped major corporations like Bud Light, Target and Kohl's, fast-food retailer Kentucky Fried Chicken has been quiet about their newest collaboration.
Partnering with video game giant Activision-Blizzard for the release of their upcoming title "Diablo IV," KFC is laying low about the campaign featuring the demon Lilith.
The subtle marketing campaign has made it so that people are not just given the Diablo IV themed items, but instead must link their BlizzardBattle.net account to their KFC account and order their food online.
Another big sign of spiritual revival in America just took place at a historic location in California. More than 4,000 people were baptized in Pirate's Cove on Pentecost Sunday to celebrate not only the gift of eternal life but to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Jesus Movement.
Oceans Church organized Baptize SoCal—an event advertised as "the biggest water baptism in history." The huge event coincided with a major anniversary of the Christian awakening that saw hundreds of thousands of young people come to Christ in the 1960s and 70s.
More than 280 churches and 8,000 attendees watched as 4,166 people fled to the shore of Pirates Cove to declare their new life in Christ.
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Purdue University’s most recent "Consumer Food Insights" report indicates that consumers want more fresh food offerings from dollar stores — over half of those polled. Nearly 60% of those polled live within 10 minutes of a dollar store.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, only 11% of respondents who shop at dollar stores purchased fresh fruit and vegetables over the past 30 days. Most of the buys went towards snack foods (39%), canned foods (23%) and frozen foods (20%).
When it comes to organic, respondents said fruit and vegetables are the most popular, but only one-third of those polled said they often or always go with organic.
“Since organics are not purchased that often, we can say that people are likely overstating how often they select these foods,” economist and report co-author Sam Polzin said. “Since organics have one of the largest halos with regards to nutrition, naturalness and the environment, social desirability bias is probably a common factor contributing to this phenomenon.”
The current economy also continues to be a burden on families. Of those surveyed for the report, 40% said they rely on food aid and 80% indicated they are living paycheck to paycheck.
“[Those consumers] also have a much more negative view toward their own diets, which we might expect would have a cumulative negative effect on overall well-being,” Polzin said in the release. “They eat at home more often, prefer generic brands, and aren’t buying more expensive products like wild-caught fish or organics as much.”


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The cost of most pet food has gone up.
But when the food industry is trying to compete with the rising cost of prescription drugs, the cost is going up, too.
Pet food companies say they have to pay more for their ingredients and ingredients alone because drug prices have increased faster than the cost per pound of ingredients.
The cost per serving has also gone up since 2009, when it was $1.75.
Pet foods that are sold for less than $1 each are expected to go up more than 25% from last year, according to PetSmart.
The food industry has also been getting better at figuring out the right ingredients for pet food and the right recipes.
That means pet food manufacturers are now able to price their ingredients in ways that make them cheaper than their competitors.
Some pet food companies have even developed recipes that look like the old food recipes from decades ago, which has led to a rise in price per serving.
One example of a pet food that has made it to the top of the list of top 10 pet foods is kangaroos pet food.
The company sells kangaros products in the U.S. and Canada, but in recent years it has become increasingly popular in the European market.
The U.K.-based pet food company is making kangaraos products at an even higher price than its competitors.
That’s partly because the food’s ingredients are cheaper than what’s on the market in other countries.
The kangacoos formula includes kangas powder, which contains vitamins and minerals, and is also made from kangalensis, which is a hardy and nutritious plant.
Some people have been saying for years that kangarees ingredients were made from the same plant that was used in the pet food industry.
But a new study shows that kungaroes ingredients have actually been produced using the same kangacanas seeds, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The research is the latest to show that kongaros ingredients can be cheaper than the pet foods that come on supermarket shelves.
PetFood.com, a pet nutrition company that sells pet foods, said it will release a new kanga diet product in September, which will be called K-2, the Korean version of the K-1 formula.
It will have the same ingredients and will cost $1 less per pound than its predecessor.
In a statement, PetFood said it has increased the amount of kangreals powder in its formula, adding that krai seeds are also in the new product.
Pet Food.com is also preparing a new product that will be more affordable than the current K-5 formula, which it said is about a 10% lower price.
The new product will cost about $1 more per pound.
And PetFood has updated its pet food packaging to show what the ingredients look like and how they were added to the formula.
The packaging includes the ingredients and the date of manufacture.
Pet Foods Pet Foods said in a statement that the new K-4 formula has about 25% more kangarin seeds than the previous K-3 formula.
And the packaging includes a date on the bottle of the new k-4 pet food product.
The price of the kangabrew pet food formula has also increased.
The pet food giant said it is increasing the price per kilogram by about 25%.
Pet Food Inc. said it increased the price by $2 per kilo of kanga pet food for pet users to $4.99 per kilowatt-hour.
It also increased the prices of its kangaru pet food by $4 per kilos per week.
PetSmart said it expects the price of kongaroes pet food to rise from $1 per pound to $1 $2 for pet owners.
The rise is also expected to come at a time when the price for kangaria pet food is about 25%, compared with $2 to $3 per kilomug.
Petfood Inc. also said that k-1 pet food will be cheaper this year than it was last year.
Petit Foods Petit said it plans to raise the price on pet food products from $2.99 to $5 per pound this year.
The higher price for pet foods could be a factor in the rising prices of prescription medications, which have also risen at a faster pace than the price in pet foods.
In addition, pet food makers have been trying to keep prices down.
They are trying to create products that are more affordable.
And they have been doing that by adding new ingredients.
PetNutrition, which owns Petit, said in its statement that its pet foods products are also more affordable this year, and they will remain cheaper for a while.


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Widespread shortages have been ravaging supplies of Venezuelan food, tech, and medical industries for months, due to the instability of the political and financial climate in that country. Now, shortages of medications have gotten so bad that some Venezuelans have reportedly resorted to using medications for pets.
Yahoo! News and Reuters reported recently that Venezuela’s Pharmaceutical Federation estimates somewhere around 70% of prescription medications have been stolen off the shelves of pharmacies, in response to the country’s worsening shortages and inflation rate.
Illegal prescription drug transactions are fairly common in most countries today; in the U.S., for example, it’s estimated that around 10% of all prescription drug sales are fraudulent, and commonly focus on pain relievers and stimulants that can produce a high. In Venezuela, however, consumers are stealing and selling prescription drugs because they’re trying to stay healthy.
Many patients, in fact, are actually fighting for their lives, which has become a virtual nightmare when hospitals have no supplies and no idea of when any supplies will be imported.
For this reason, according to the Venezuelan Medical Federation, patients have begun turning to the drugs sold by their local veterinarians.
These medications most often include antibiotics, steroids, and pain killers which contain the same active ingredient as drugs intended for people, but which haven’t been approved for human consumption — and which could potentially cause very bad reactions.
The International Business Times states that the shortages have reached a “critical level” and inflation continues to skyrocket; the value of the Venezuelan bolivar has undergone so much inflation that Venezuelans rarely even use their own currency anymore.
Of course, the price of basic items is perhaps not the biggest worry of the average Venezuelan consumer, considering that it’s hard to get any items imported into the country now, save for what’s smuggled in on the black market.
The decline of Venezuela’s economy began during 2014 when the price of crude oil began falling; considering that crude oil comprises 95% of Venezuela’s exports, this price drop severely impacted the economy, causing the inflation rate to skyrocket. In the past, Venezuela has imported nearly all of its food and medical supplies from foreign manufacturers, but as the bolivar’s value has decreased, companies have been refusing to bring goods into the country.
The Venezuelan pharmaceutical industry reportedly owes approximately $3.5 billion in unpaid imports to foreign companies.


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Amid industry disruption and turbulence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the reputation of independent equipment finance companies for being creative and resilient is being reinforced. A majority of participants polled during a session presented at ELFA 2020 Business LIVE! said that independents will gain market share over banks and captives in 2021. Where they are finding opportunities and how they pursue deals were among the topics of the event session “Pockets of Opportunity for Independents – Where to Shoot the 8-Ball.”
The session was presented by the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s independent middle market business council steering committee on Oct. 28 and featured committee chair Ricardo “Ricky” Rios of CEFI and Jonathan Albin of Nexseer Capital as co-moderators along with panelists Abhay Bhootra of Truist Securities; Barry Ripes of PayNet, an Equifax company; and Tom Davidson of Encina Equipment Finance. Throughout the session, panelists discussed market conditions, credit availability and best practices in examining how independents are coming through 2020 successfully.
The following are five key takeaways about where independents are focusing their attention as they pursue market share.
Key Industry Data
Originations in the equipment finance industry were down 30% year over year and 9% month to month at the end of August, according to PayNet data. The highest delinquencies year over year are in healthcare and brick-and-mortar retail (including arts and entertainment), and they are the most challenged sectors going forward. Primed for success are construction (with delinquencies as of August down 12% year over year), agriculture (with delinquencies up a bit but fairly steady and expected to improve) and transportation, which has become an integral part of online sales delivery. States with the highest COVID-19 rates unsurprisingly have the highest default rates. Florida, California, New York, Texas and Louisiana have shown average default rates (4%) much higher than before COVID-19 (under 1%). States with the lowest default rates (around 1.5%) — North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska — will likely see an increase in defaults after recent COVID-19 spikes. PayNet reports the year-over-year spikes are the biggest since they started tracking the data in 2005.
Industries for Opportunity
Independents tend to dig into business models and get into industries that have a history of restructuring, all of which point to continued opportunity. Panelists did not let up in seeking new business through the pandemic, critiquing plans and evaluating their likely degree of success while continuing to structure transactions accordingly. In some ways the virus has accelerated some trends that were already happening. There are attractive opportunities in technology, infrastructure, software and anything with an online component in the business model as well as select manufacturing, packaging and some consumer products. On the downside, there are obvious challenges in travel and hospitality as well as oil and gas, which has had tremendous volatility.
Availability of Capital
Despite the pandemic, the sources of capital that were available pre-COVID-19 are still intact, and capital continues to be readily available in many forms. By comparison, during the Great Recession in 2008, asset-backed securities market disruption was unprecedented, while during the pandemic the disruption lasted for only five to six weeks. Capital is available from many sources, including securitization, institutional investors, banks and one-off players. As an indicator, data show that small-ticket and mid-ticket independents in 2019 issued about $7.7 billion in term asset-backed securities, and year to date in 2020, there is already about $7.3 billion. It is a strong number for the middle of a pandemic and indicates how constructive the capital markets have been in responding to large appetite and demand.
Importance of Relationships
For independents looking to secure capital, strong relationships with providers are critical from both a strategic and transactional perspective. On a transactional level it is critical to have many relationships with potential providers and potential syndication buyers, have an understanding of what their appetite is for a given opportunity, and be able to tap into it quickly. On the strategic side, it requires finding the right provider with whom to collaborate effectively, having good communication and designing a strategic set of opportunities together to pursue. This requires a common understanding of how the independent operates and mutually agreeing on where the strike zone is. Either way, it is about relationships and tapping into the providers who best know your business.
Underwriting is Key
Underwriting practices are still in place without any real adjustments. What is different is that everyone has a new risk factor that they think about in a number of different ways: particular industries and the trends in the industry, a particular company and the usage of equipment, and what has happened in the supply chain. The COVID-19 risk factor is a thread that goes through every transaction. It is key to understand how lasting and flexible companies are, what equipment they are looking to finance and how critical it is to their operations given the current environment.
As a panelist noted, when you’re not holding back during a pandemic, it really proves that you’re an independent equipment finance company. Independents are more nimble, can move and adjust more quickly than a large bank and can adjust their business model. The ones who understand their business plan and verticals will be poised to take opportunities sooner rather than later.
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Monitor’s fourth annual women in equipment finance list highlights notable women within the industry that have been nominated by our readers and hand-selected by Monitor’s staff and editorial board. Here are this year’s honorees: Maryellen Barbarish Mithu Bhargava Hollis Bufferd... read more
The Convention that (Almost) Didn’t Happen The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s 61st Annual Convention was one that almost didn’t happen this year. Originally set to take place on Marco Island, FL, Hurricane Ian changed those plans and caused the... read more


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Colossi’s Coffee House, located in the heart of downtown High River, has continued to grapple with small town business competitiveness. However, they have proven to outlast many of their competitors while still serving popular hot and cold drinks for 19 years.
Customer Julie Burridge, noting the differences between popular chains and small local businesses, says that it is the obvious love that goes into all of their beverages that keeps her coming back for more.
“This way the money stays local and you are helping out another family that is local,” says Burridge. “They put more time and care into your drink – more love.”
Barista Quinn Hughes has been with Colossi’s for four years. She says that it is returning customers like Burridge who make her job so enjoyable.
“We put a lot of care into our drinks and I think we care more about our customers,” says Hughes, explaining the differences between Colossi’s and big coffee chains.
Colossi’s showcases an array of art pieces done by locals in their store, along with a large variety of different beverage and food options. The local business proves to stand up to its local competitors while going above and beyond the average daily coffee experience.


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AMD ships five million Fusion chips, says it’s sold out. AMD said this week that it has shipped about 5 million of its power-efficient Fusion processors to date, as it makes inroads thanks to Intel’s fading Netbook franchise.
The Tech Journal is a technology news website that covers consumer technology news. We aim to provide you with latest information about what's going in the consumer technology industry. Over time, we want to grow in a technology news portal providing you with news, information and tools to help make your way through the tech clutter.


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Well, I can’t say that I am terribly surprised to see that this company is moving with such quick paces. It is the way the big players in the technology industry have to work.
David Greenfield delivers practical information about tools and technologies that enable organizational teams to work more effectively with one another.
On April 16, Microsoft’s Newsroom included an article entitled, “Microsoft Word 2010 Coauthoring Enables Multiple People to Work on a Document at the Same Time.” The piece discussed the coauthoring collaboration tool that is supposed to be all the rage when this Office Suite is finally released to the public.
Today there is so much business done online that one would hardly have to speak to another human being in order to continue with life in more or less the same manner as usual. That being said, it is a constant game of trying to grab the attention of virtual viewers over the millions of other websites that make their home on the World Wide Web.
With all the hubbub I've had to say about BlackBerry and the Androids recently, it is time to, once again, take a look at the iPhone- only it may appear a bit different than before. Apple announced the shipment of iPhone OS 4 this summer at its media day today and with it the iPhone will change significantly.
The super successful financial software, Quickbooks, was recently made available online and via web application for customer testing on the iPhone, BlackBerry, and other smartphones. The software, which aids in bookkeeping, customer account tracking, and other equally important financial task, has made itself a favorite of a great number of small businesses nationwide for its user-friendliness and affordability.
Facebook announced on Friday that former Google-ite David Fischer, would be joining their team. Though Fischer is leaving a company that is known for moving fast, he was the Vice President of Global Online Sales & Operations, he will not see any slowing of pace with his new position.
For the person who is always on the go, but also cares to grow his or her financial wealth, your portfolio can now go with you.For the TDAmeritrade customers in the audience, there is an application- not put out by the company itself, but a partner company- that provides that necessary mobility.
Tomorrow kicks off the annual CTIA Wireless Conference to be held, this year, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Together the minds of the wireless world will meet, discuss and show all that has improved in the industry over the twelve months since their last get-together.
As a parent to two teenagers and a pre-teen, the question to Facebook or not to Facebook has reared its ugly head. Too Facebook was starting to win out, but thanks to a new feature I can comfortably change my tune.
In the days of social networking, no one seems to be impervious to wondering, curious eyes. That includes employers.
At the end of the first quarter of last year, the news for Myspace spelled what seemed to be sure disaster. The company came in a whopped $400,000 behind their estimated target in 2008 and couldn't seem to budge from the plateau of 75 million users, whereas competitors- namelyFacebook- grew exponentially.
Ok, so flipping through the SXSW news from the past day and a half, one cannot help but see Twitter in nearly every headline. But, what I didn't see- at least not until I delved much deeper into the heap of headlines- was information on the new social networking iPhone App, which is arguably more noteworthy that Twitter being everywhere (I'm sorry, @anywhere.
Many of the technologists that I speak with like the concept of social media, but stumble when it comes to cost justification. Innovation is a hard one to put a dollar sign on and social media certainly suffers from those ills.
The end of the first quarter of 2010 is approaching and still the economy is not showing any great signs of improvement. So, as we all continue to wear our belts tight, white-knuckle our pennies, and make efforts to cut (make that a buzz, please) costs, we must consider alternatives to the new, "must-have," and fairly expensive technologies that have entered the business world.
Ever since I smashed my Windows Mobile against our bedroom wall, I’ve been hunting for a new mobile phone. Collaboration just isn’t the same as when you can Evernote from your palm.


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Linux Wi-Fi bug leaves systems vulnerable to forced crashes and full control by hackers
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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government continues to focus on curbing the current account deficits (CAD). One way is by increasing the exports of leading commodities from Indonesian plantations to a number of developed countries, one of them Switzerland.
"There is a huge export opportunity to Switzerland and coincidentally Switzerland applies free trade agreements," Cooperatives and SMEs Minister Teten Masduki said in Jakarta on Monday, January 13, 2020.
The main commodities of Indonesian plantations, said Teten, are coffee and cocoa. Indonesia also wants to increase the exports of horticultural products, bamboo-based products, herbal medicines, and marine products.
Switzerland is considered a potential export destination as it is one of the gateways to Europe's market.
"We can actually use Switzerland as an entry point to the European market, so we will take full advantage of the cooperation," Teten said.
Teten further added that Indonesia's trade balance with Switzerland is now at a surplus, thanks to the export of mining products such as gold and other precious metals. However, for horticultural commodities, the export volume is very small. For coffee, Indonesia's export value to Switzerland has only reached USD 30 million.


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Aleks Krotoski and Charles Arthur talk with Adgent, BlueVia, alwaysonmessage and BlackBerry about developments and developing for mobile. Plus this week's news stories involving Apple, Samsung, HP and Android
Twice a week IOVOX staff have a 6am "Fight Club". Its founder, Ryan Gallagher, has a pastlife in Silicon Valley, bricklaying, martial arts and as a security guard. His current preoccupation is to "KO the broken telco model"
A New York Times story about a spectacle reseller horrified the Googleites - so much so that they've rushed in a fix that should mean a bad reputation won't get a high ranking. Unless you're a politician..
Online video advertising is an untapped goldmine, so thinks 24-year-old serial entrepreneur Emi Gal. His company, Brainient, is barely two years old and has built up a not-insignificant run of momentum
Google has tried to whet the appetite of potential advertisers with a lengthy post setting the scene for the future of display advertising - traditionally an area in which Yahoo has been much more dominant. By Jemima Kiss
Hulu could launch its initial public offering as early as autumn, the New York Times reports, with the firm consulting investment banks in a move that could value the video site at $2bn. By Jemima Kiss
One takeaway from Google's purchase last week of travel search technology provider ITA Software is that the company believes there is a need to add more specific search tools to its offerings. By Joseph Tartakoff


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Social Media Plans Gone Wrong
This weekend I was asked to comment about an advert that had caused a Twitter outrage. This is something that is increasingly in the spotlight with companies making social media gaffes which incense the public and cause huge brand damage. It is often very difficult to anticipate how the audience will interpret an advert or whether it will cause offence. What is clear though is that in South Africa the sensitivities are magnified and the public are very quick to express their outrage on social media platforms calling for boycotts of products. Also, these examples are not often covered by any common law because the advertising complained about is not overtly unlawful but rather “in bad taste” and it is very difficult to legislate that.
Insurance underwriters are starting to develop social media liability insurance products to protect companies as well as individuals from these types of incidents. It may be very difficult to quantify the types of financial losses that a company has suffered in these cases and how they would deal with the claims however, there are products to assist with public relations management when these types of crises occur.
The starting point, however, is a strong social media strategy and a very experienced team dealing with social media campaigns. We would recommend a diverse group to “test” the campaign before it goes live so that the particular sensitivities of the population are considered. Obviously this slows down the campaign which flies in the face of advantages of social media however brands will not regret taking a little more time to avoid these types of disasters.


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Diddy Kong Racing for DSOn: DS
Diddy Kong Racing comes to the Nintendo DS.
Stuck on Diddy Kong Racing? We've got you covered!
Don't panic! Our cheats will see you through.
Games are riddled with secrets you know nothing about! Here's a few to make your brain happy and your teeth smile...
Mario Strikers, Eledees, Hotel Dusk, Final Fantasy III and more lined-up for the coming three months.
Nintendo has announced that Diddy Kong Racing DS will be released across Europe on April 20.
Nintendo has announced that the Nintendo DS is now in the hands of more than 10 million customers in the Americas.


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The Chinese video game company gave investors welcome news after a tough spell.
News & Analysis: NetEase
Despite momentum for tech stocks and an earnings beat, uncertainty in China's video game market helped make February a rocky month for the online media company.
Chinese internet company's recovering gaming business offsets softer growth on its nongaming side.
Some poor earnings results sent stocks lower.
The Chinese video game company is still looking for breakout performance despite solid growth.
NTES earnings call for the period ending December 31, 2018.
The two companies are focusing on imports instead of the mainstream e-commerce market.
There's a reason to be patient.
But it still faces an uphill battle against the market leader.
The Chinese tech giant is likely pivoting away from comics to focus on streaming music.


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Drones being used to deliver packages to homes and businesses is probably the one way that all of us will have some exposure to unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAV’s, if we don’t use them recreationally. Public opinion about this subject has always been varied, but recent polls have suggested that many of the public do not support them and their use for such a purpose, but why? Could it be misinformation, resistance to change, or perhaps both?
Drones in the media:
It’s highly likely that media coverage of drones hasn’t helped with the public’s perception of them. When drones make the headlines, it’s usually because of something terrible that has happened, such as drones being flown near airports, or when they’re used during warfare. Were the media to report upon the many positive ways in which drones are helping the world, perhaps public opinion could be swayed. However, as it stands today, polls have shown that the younger generation are far more open to the use of drones in our daily lives, while those of 65 years and over are more sceptical. While these results may be expected, those who work in the drone industry would certainly like to see more people approving of drones and their uses within the public.
Governments and companies must help to educate the public:
There have been many changes to the safety aspects of drones over the years, both from the government and private companies, but if the public aren’t made aware of this, then it’s understandable that they remain suspicious and concerned about drones being used to deliver packages.
Dronesbeing used in other ways:
Outside of delivery, drones tend to have a much more positive image, such as when they are used by emergency response services, or to monitor areas after natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes. This shows that the public are certainly open to drones, but perhaps cautious of them being used so close to home.
If the public can learn to accept drones being used by delivery companies, then of course it’s good news for those companies, but it may also have a positive impact on the environment, since they can help to reduce emissions and alleviate congestion.
While it may be a long time before public opinion moves towards accepting drones for delivering packages, with more insight into how drones work and the technology that is used in creating them, there is an increased chance that more people will warm up to the idea, and since drones aren’t set to go anywhere, anytime soon, this can only be a good thing.


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Dirty tactics? UAW's beef with Nissan heads to fedsOct. 3
As Toyota and Mazda scour the U.S., Mississippi opens armsAug. 7
Union vote gets ugly amid allegations of Nissan obstruction, UAW corruptionAug. 2
Nissan workers don't want UAWJuly 31
UAW files petition to force vote at Nissan Miss. plantJuly 11
Toyota seeks to smooth supply streamNov. 21, 2016
Continental to build $1.4 billion tire plant in MississippiFeb. 9, 2016
Continental's decision to commit $1.4 billion for a truck/bus tire plant in Mississippi reflects the company's belief that demand for its commercial tire products in North America will continue to grow at above market pace.