DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Abandoned shopping carts cost taxpayers thousands of dollars
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Abandoned shopping carts are a scourge to neighborhoods, as wayward carts block intersections, sidewalks and bus stops. There is no national data on shopping cart losses, but US retailers lose an estimated tens of millions of dollars every year replacing lost and damaged carts, say shopping cart experts. They pay vendors to rescue stray carts and fork over fines to municipalities for violating laws on shopping carts. “It is the shopping cart.” Another New York Times article in 1957 called the trend “Cart-Napping.”There’s even a book, “The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification,” dedicated to the phenomenon and a system of identification for stray shopping carts, much like guides for bird-watching. Coin-lock shopping cart systems are popular in Europe, and Poulos said more US companies are requesting coin-lock systems in response to the costs of runaway shopping carts.

☆ Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Manslaughter Charges Put Spotlight on First-Term Prosecutor
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Elizabeth Findell | Katherine Sayre | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Before taking office two years ago, Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies vowed to target the community’s worst criminal offenders, increase crime diversion programs, build trust with immigrant families, address a rape-kit backlog and crack down on gun crime. She will likely become best known as the woman who prosecuted Alec Baldwin.

☆ Alec Baldwin to Be Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter in Fatal ‘Rust’ Shooting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Katherine Sayre | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Prosecutors plan to charge Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the movie “Rust” in New Mexico in 2021, the district attorney in Santa Fe said Thursday. The film’s armorer overseeing weapons, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, will also be charged with involuntary manslaughter in the incident, according to a statement from Santa Fe-area District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies. The charges are expected to be filed by the end of the month.

SANTA FE, N.M. — Prosecutors said Thursday they knew “pretty close to the beginning” of their probe into the fatal shooting of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins that criminal charges would be filed. Prosecutors announced Thursday that Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed will each face two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Baldwin was criminally responsible as both the alleged shooter and the “Rust” producer who should have had oversight on safety, officials said. Alec Baldwin practicing a scene with a revolver on the set of the Western "Rust" before cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot. Prosecutors declined to say if they offered Baldwin a chance to plead guilty in exchange for his testimony.

Oscar-nominated actor Alec Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the Western movie “Rust,” prosecutors said Thursday. "Rust" first assistant director, David Halls, has agreed to plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon, according to Carmack-Altwies' office. Baldwin was rehearsing with a pistol for a scene set inside a church when the gun went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza. Jae C. Hong / AP fileIn early October, Hutchins’ husband reached a settlement in his wrongful death lawsuit against the producers of “Rust,” including Baldwin. Souza is expected to return as the director when filming picks back up this month.

[1/3] District attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies speaks at a news conference after actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the film set of the movie "Rust" in Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S., October 27, 2021. REUTERS/Adria MalcolmJan 19 (Reuters) - A New Mexico prosecutor on Thursday will announce a long-awaited decision on whether she will charge actor Alec Baldwin or others for fatally shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021 as Baldwin rehearsed a scene on the Western movie "Rust." Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded when a gun Baldwin was using during a rehearsal in October 2021 fired off a live bullet. Authorities have been trying to determine how a real bullet made its way to the movie set. Under the agreement, filming on the low-budget movie is set to resume this month with Hutchins' husband serving as an executive producer.

☆ 39 more Regal theaters are closing in the US amid bankruptcy. See the full list.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Travis Clark | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Over three dozen Regal Cinemas locations in the US are expected to close. Cineworld detailed the plan to reject the leases starting February 15 in a new bankruptcy filing on Tuesday. Regal is the second-largest cinema chain in the US, behind AMC, with over 500 theaters. The company's plan to close locations during its bankruptcy is fairly routine. Cineworld filed for bankruptcy at a time when the larger theatrical industry is struggling to fully rebound from the pandemic.

REUTERS/Andrew KellyJan 19 (Reuters) - A New Mexico prosecutor on Thursday charged actor Alec Baldwin and others in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the filming of Western "Rust." District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies announced involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin and the film's armorer after more than a year of investigation into the October 2021 shooting on a film set outside Santa Fe. “On my watch, no one is above the law, and everyone deserves justice.”Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will each be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, she said. Under New Mexico law, involuntary manslaughter is a fourth-degree felony and is punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine. The sheriff's office focused on how live rounds got onto a movie set and how they were loaded into a firearm.

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, say the homes or businesses of four local and state politicians have been shot at since early December. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina speaks with the media about the recent shootings at the homes and businesses of local elected officials. In the three cases that involved homes, the shootings involved eight to 12 rounds, police said. Eight shots were fired at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa on Dec. 4. Most of the shootings happened in Albuquerque, which is in Bernalillo County.

Today, there are 54 Hispanic American banks and credit unions that are FDIC or NCUA insured around the US. We selected Hispanic American-owned credit unions from the National Credit Union Administration's list of minority depository institutions which was also updated in September 2022. In our list of Hispanic American-owned banks and credit unions, many of the institutions listed offer customer support in Spanish and English. You can open up savings accounts, checking accounts, CDs, and money market accounts in most of the institutions listed. To help you learn more about a specific Hispanic American-owned bank or credit union, we've included links to reviews of individual institutions.

☆ The most honest man in real estate thinks the housing market isn't going to crash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Here's how Miller, who doesn't think the housing market is going to crash, became a beacon of trust. The call was from a journalist at an international paper asking for Miller's comment on the US housing market for a story. The 62-year-old founder of the real-estate-appraisal and data firm Miller Samuel is probably the most-quoted man in real estate, with some 2,469 news citations, according to the database LexisNexis. Today, Miller Samuel has replaced Scantrons with iPods, iPhones, and a CoreLogic appraisal software called A La Mode. Today, there's much more data than there was when he started Miller Samuel, but also a lot more "crap," Miller said.

☆ Child workers found throughout Hyundai-Kia supply chain in Alabama
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

Hyundai and Kia now have dozens of suppliers in Alabama, according to the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, a business group. The agency, they said, hired underage workers while they worked there. “It was my first job in the United States and this is not what you would expect to see here.”Six other former workers told Reuters they, too, saw underage workers at Ajin’s two factories in Cusseta. Herrera said he raised concerns about the underage workers with managers at SMART, but was brushed off. The officials, wearing shirts that bore Hyundai logos, inspected the assembly line even as underage workers labored there, Herrera said.

☆ Stocks slide but dollar gains as central banks continue inflation battle
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Lawrence Delevingne | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Stocks fell, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) slipping 2.5%, the S&P 500 (.SPX) down about 2.6% and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) off 3%. The STOXX (.STOXX) fell by about 2.85% as heavyweight stocks across sectors sank. U.S. Treasury yields fell on Thursday, with the yield on 10-year Treasury notes down 6.4 basis points to 3.439% and the 30-year down 8.1 basis points to 3.459%. China's economy, however, lost more steam in November as factory output slowed and retail sales fell again, hobbled by surging COVID-19 infections. U.S. crude fell 0.75% to $76.70 per barrel and Brent was at $81.85, down 1.03% on the day.

☆ Dollar falters as investors challenge Fed's hawkishness
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Rae Wee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The kiwi fell 0.05% to $0.6456, though it was similarly not far off the six-month peak of $0.6513 it hit this week. The 50 bp increase marked a downshift after four consecutive 75 basis point rate hikes. Against a basket of currencies, the U.S. dollar index was last 0.02% higher at 103.68, after touching a six-month low in the previous session. Fed funds futures also show that markets are expecting U.S. rates to peak just under 5% by May next year. Elsewhere, the Aussie was last 0.05% lower at $0.6860, while the dollar slipped 0.06% against the Japanese yen to 135.40.

☆ Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway are beating the market this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But Warren Buffett has no reason to be worried. Shares of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) are up about 5.5% in 2022. Berkshire has big stakes in Coca-Cola (KO) and Kraft Heinz (KHC), which are each up around 10% this year. Buffett turns 93 next August while Berkshire vice chair and long-time Buffett confidant Charlie Munger will celebrate his 99th birthday on New Year’s Day. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren has introduced a bill with Republican Sen. Roger Marshall that would crack down on money laundering in the crypto world.

☆ Freight railroad service is terrible, even without the threat of a strike
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But that doesn’t mean freight railroads are providing good service to their customers. Many of the problems tangling up the supply chain, driving up prices and slowing the economy can be traced to the steady decline in freight rail service in recent years. Some experts who represent rail customers who have complained about service in the past say service has gotten better since earlier this year. “The national freight rail network is broken, and the need for long-term rail reform is clear. Union Pacific (UNP), Norfolk Southern (NSC) and Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRKA) Burlington Northern Santa Fe all reported record earnings in 2021.

☆ Arid wheat fields and dead cows: a snapshot of Argentina's worst drought in decades
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Maximilian Heath | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The drought in Argentina has led to sharp cuts to the country's wheat harvest forecast and is threatening to derail corn and soy too. Russo said soil moisture levels were worse than the 2008/09 campaign, when the South American country produced only 31 million tonnes of soybeans, from 18 million hectares planted. Russo said that the current wheat crop forecast of 11.8 million tonnes, already slashed from an original 19 million tonnes, could be trimmed further. In 2008/09 the wheat harvest was 8.3 million tonnes. Reporting by Maximilian Heath in Navarro, Argentina Editing by Adam Jourdan and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ This former tech worker is helping change laws for people who get laid off
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Faith Karimi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —Ifeoma Ozoma’s path as an advocate for tech workers started with a series of tweets one morning in June 2020. She emerged as a passionate advocate for tech workers by seeking legal protections for whistleblowers. “So many people reached out when I told my story, and most of them were tech workers or workers within the tech industry,” she said. The 30-year-old mentors activists and other people fighting all over the world against workplace discrimination. After leaving Pinterest, Ozoma moved to a farm near Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she grows her own vegetables and raises a flock of chickens nicknamed the Golden Girls.

☆ Ifeoma Ozoma is a passionate advocate for tech whistleblowers. It all started with tweets
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Faith Karimi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

☆ This graphic shows how many more stars you can see under truly dark skies vs. city, suburban, and rural areas
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Astronomers classify night skies from dark to bright using the Bortle Scale, ranked from one to nine. Light pollution is when artificial light washes out the night sky and makes it hard to see stars. While it might not be as potentially harmful as other kinds of pollution, light pollution can affect human health. Level four classifies the transition from suburban to rural areas, where you can see the Milky Way. The night sky is brimming with stars, making it harder to parse out faint constellations.

☆ How an arcane 96-year-old law stopped the rail strike
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The Railway Labor Act was passed in 1926 as one of the very first labor laws in the nation. Because of the law, the House was able to vote Wednesday to impose unpopular contracts on four rail unions whose members have already rejected the terms, followed by a vote by the Senate vote late Thursday that did the same. The Railway Labor Act, passed in 1926, is the reason Congress could intervene this week to block a strike by freight railroad unions. But under the Railway Labor Act, management can fall back on hopes that Congress will give them the deal it wants. When he served in the Senate, Biden voted against an earlier effort to impose a contract on the rail unions to keep them on the job.

☆ America may dodge a crippling rail strike. Here’s how we got here
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

The House approved two pieces of legislation Wednesday, one to impose the tentative agreements that members of four of the unions have already rejected, keeping 115,000 rail workers on the job and averting a strike. More than just sick daysThe fact that this is still an issue more than two months after an 11th-hour tentative deal was reached goes beyond the issue of paid sick days. All 12 rail unions agreed to the tentative deals that generated so much opposition. But he said the issue of sick days will not be going away. Senator Bernie Sanders, a close ally of the labor movement, tweeted “At a time of record profits in the rail industry, it’s unacceptable that rail workers have ZERO guaranteed paid sick days.

☆ Jeffrey Epstein's unsold former New Mexico ranch is no longer the most expensive home in the state after nearly $10 million price reduction
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Zorro Ranch, previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein, has dropped from $27.5 million to $18 million after over a year on the market. It was once the most expensive home in New Mexico before the price cut, Realtor reported. His 7,500-acre New Mexico mansion was listed for $27.5 million in June 2021, but the price has since dropped to $18 million, according to a Realtor report. Realtor.com listing for Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch in New Mexico. Dolly Lenz, founder and CEO of Dolly Lenz Real Estate, explained to Realtor why Zorro Ranch has been more difficult to sell than Epstein's other luxurious properties.

Forecasts suggest La Nina may fade into a neutral phase midway through Argentina’s growing season, but it is too early to say with certainty. Current trade wind and ocean temperatures, including those in the Indian Ocean, could support further strengthening of La Nina in the coming weeks. But that should not necessarily heighten concerns since crop impacts are not perfectly correlated with La Nina strength. Rain during the 2008-09 growing season was less than two-thirds of normal, resulting in terrible crop yields, particularly for soybeans. Growing season rains were a third heavier than usual, and soybean yields were very good, but corn was excellent.

CNN —Text messages pulled from Alec Baldwin’s phone in the days and weeks following the deadly shooting while filming the movie “Rust” indicate the actor was concerned the incident was the result of possible sabotage and questioned the Santa Fe Sheriff Department’s ability to properly investigate that angle. The Baldwin text messages were among a trove of investigative items publicly released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department on Friday in a 551-page document that also contained previously released forensic reports, search warrant affidavits, investigator logs and witness statements. Baldwin’s phone was turned over months after the fatal October 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal for the movie, which was being filmed near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Earlier this month, Baldwin filed a lawsuit in California against several individuals associated with the “Rust” film, according to a cross-complaint obtained by CNN. Baldwin told Matt Hutchins in another text, “the gun WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE FIRED in that camera angle.

Search resuls for: "Santa FE"

25 mentions found