DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ You Call That Snow?! See How This Winter Stacks Up.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Francesca Paris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

If so, you’re not alone: It has been a dreary winter for children hoping for snow days and grown-up snow enthusiasts alike on the East Coast. More than 50 years of snowfall in … Interactive line chart showing cumulative snowfall for each winter season over 50 years, as well as the median snowfall for all seasons. Line chart showing Philadelphia’s cumulative snowfall for each winter season over 50 years. Loading dataLine chart showing Boston’s cumulative snowfall for each winter season over 50 years. Milwaukee Pittsburgh Providence, R.I. Pueblo, Colo. Richmond, Va. Rockford, Ill. St. Louis Topeka, Kan. About normal snow Anchorage Boise, Idaho Colorado Springs Columbia, Mo.

☆ After baby formula problems, Abbott Laboratories under DOJ investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Laura Strickler | Laura Strickler Is A Senior Investigative Producer | Reporter For Nbc News. She Is Based In Washington. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Abbott Laboratories is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, the company confirmed Friday, almost a year after it shut down a Michigan baby-formula plant after illnesses were reported. Abbott did not specify what aspect of the company is under Justice Department scrutiny. “DOJ has informed us of its investigation and we’re cooperating fully,” an Abbott spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News. The Abbott manufacturing facility in Sturgis, Mich., on May 13, 2022. Abbott voluntarily shut down production at its Sturgis infant formula manufacturing plant on Feb. 17, 2022, after infants who consumed formula made at the plant became sick.

The Justice Department is investigating conduct at the Abbott Laboratories infant-formula plant in Sturgis, Mich., that led to its shutdown last year and worsened a nationwide formula shortage, people familiar with the matter said. Attorneys with the Justice Department’s consumer-protection branch are conducting the criminal investigation, the people said.

☆ GM to invest $918 million in new V-8 gas engines and EV components
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The $918 million investment, which GM announced Friday, is despite the automaker's plans to exclusively offer all-electric consumer vehicles by 2035. A majority of the investment — $579 million — will go toward preparing GM's Flint Engine Operations plant in Michigan for the automaker's sixth-generation family of small-block V-8 gas engines. The engines are used in some of the automaker's most highly profitable products, such as its full-size pickup trucks and SUVs. GM said work at the Flint facility will begin immediately, signaling the next-generation V-8 engines are on the horizon. The last new family of V-8 engines came about in 2013.

☆ GM, LG end plans for fourth U.S. battery cell plant as automaker seeks new partner
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

DETROIT – General Motors and LG Energy Solution have indefinitely shelved plans to build a fourth battery cell plant in the U.S., as talks between the two sides recently ended without an agreement, a person familiar with the plans confirmed to CNBC. The paper, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plans, said GM is in discussions with at least one other battery supplier to proceed with the fourth U.S. battery-cell factory. GM and LG initially announced the joint-venture for a $2.3 billion plant in Ohio in December 2019, followed by other plants near GM operations in Michigan and Tennessee. A spokeswoman for Ultium referred questions to GM and LG Energy, which did not immediately respond for comment. The relationship between GM and LG Energy is crucial to the automaker's future plans for EVs, including topping Tesla and others to become the U.S. leader in all-electric vehicle sales.

☆ 3 sentenced to life in slaying of Michigan security guard over face mask order
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

FLINT, Mich. — A married couple and their son convicted of first-degree premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of a security guard who demanded the woman’s daughter wear a mask while shopping were sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole. Larry Teague, wife Sharmel Teague, and Sharmel Teague’s son, Ramonyea Bishop, were sentenced by Genesee Circuit Court Judge Brian Pickell in the shooting death of Calvin Munerlyn on May 1, 2020. Munerlyn, 43, was shot at the store just north of downtown Flint shortly after telling Sharmel Teague’s daughter she had to leave because she lacked a mask, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has said. Two men later came to the store and shot the security guard to death, investigators said. Bishop’s sister, Brya Bishop, was charged with tampering with evidence, lying to police and being an accessory to a felony.

☆ Whirlpool Strikes Deals to Divest Much of European, African Businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( John Keilman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Whirlpool will own 25% of the new company after the transaction is completed. Whirlpool Corp., whose European operations have been challenged by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said Tuesday it is turning over much of its appliance business in the region to a new entity controlled by a Turkish appliance maker. The new company, which will be majority-owned by Turkey-based Arcelik AS, is expected to have a combined $6.5 billion in sales, Whirlpool said. The Benton Harbor, Mich.-based appliance maker will own 25% of the new entity after the transaction is completed, which the company said is expected to happen by the end of the year.

The White House and U.S. Secret Service said Monday they do not maintain visitor logs for President Joe Biden’s personal home in Wilmington, Del., a day after a top House Republican called for their release. “Like every President across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement. The White House acknowledged on Saturday that more pages with classified markings were discovered at Biden's Delaware home than had been previously disclosed. On Saturday, the White House said additional pages marked classified from the Obama administration were found at Biden’s Wilmington residence, in addition to the two batches that were previously disclosed earlier in the week. In a Sunday interview with CNN”s “State of the Union,” Comer was pressed why his committee was focused on Biden’s documents but not Trump’s.

☆ House Oversight chair calls for release of visitor logs from Biden’s Delaware home
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julie-Tsirkin-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Julie Tsirkin | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on Sunday asked for the release of visitors logs from President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware in a letter to White House chief of staff Ron Klain. “Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence’s visitor log,” Comer wrote in the letter to Klain. The former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida was searched by the FBI last year after multiple attempts to obtain classified documents. The president is cooperating with the Justice Department and National Archives amid the discovery of the classified documents, she said. "He showed no interest in investigating the far more serious situation with about 100 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago with evidence in the public domain of obstruction.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), said she has personally spoken to Jeffries and recommended that Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., should be the ranking member. “The Republicans made it very clear that the committee is primarily focused on … counter intelligence and economic espionage issues which have been the focus of my own work, especially on the Intelligence Committee,” Krishnamoorthi said in an interview. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., a former CIA analyst who is eyeing a possible Senate bid in 2024, has also expressed interest in the top role on the China panel. But while CAPAC is divided, its members agree that the ranking member of the new panel should be Asian American. Think about that," said one CAPAC member.

☆ Ex-Flint, Michigan, fire chief sues mayor, saying he was fired for refusing to cover up house fire that killed 2 children
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Sniegocki and Zlotek said they found no one in the burning home and gave the “all clear” to other firefighters on the scene, the lawsuit said. Minutes later the boys were foundSniegocki and Zlotek, who resigned, could not be reached at phone numbers listed for them. The firefighters union, Neeley’s office and a city attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Sniegocki and Zlotek entered the house. Nine days after Neeley’s re-election on Nov. 8, the mayor fired him, according to the lawsuit.

The GOP-controlled House passes a rules package for 118th Congress with just one GOP defection, NBC’s Kyle Stewart reports. ... President Biden spends his final day in Mexico City at North American Leaders’ Summit. But first: The news that the Justice Department is reviewing Obama Era classified documents found at a think tank tied to President Biden is quite a political gift to Donald Trump. “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?” Trump posted on his Truth Social account. 6: The number of shootings recently at or near the homes of New Mexico Democratic political leaders, including the incoming state House speaker.

☆ Draymond Green Sets Us Straight on the Real N.B.A.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +20 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Draymond Green Sets Us Straight on the Real N.B.A. Celtics have a die-hard fan base that’s going to root hard for the Celtics. But when I’ve listened to it, it’s not as if you’re saying things that are all that far away from what pundits or analysts are saying. I don’t think it affected who I was, who I am, because my mom never allowed it to. So when I say what he said is irrelevant, I’m saying that from the standpoint of, Let me not deflect.

☆ How Kellogg Uses Standardized Benchmarks to Boost Cost Savings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Kellogg Co. is working to reap additional cost savings by relying more heavily on standardized performance benchmarks, a move that could prove particularly useful as the economy slows. Kellogg began using the benchmarks in 2019. WSJ: What led Kellogg to start using standardized benchmarks in 2019? Anytime we have a process change or process improvement, the process happens all over again. WSJ: How have you boosted efficiencies from using benchmarks?

☆ Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow Says She Won’t Seek Re-Election
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Siobhan Hughes | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) said she won’t seek re-election, potentially narrowing Democrats’ path to holding on to the majority in the 2024 elections. “Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate,” she said Thursday. Ms. Stabenow, 72 years old, said she would leave the Senate at the end of her term on Jan. 3, 2025. She is chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee and was first elected to the Senate in 2000.

☆ Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow Won’t Seek Re-Election
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Siobhan Hughes | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) said she won’t seek re-election, potentially narrowing Democrats’ path to holding on to the majority in the 2024 elections. “Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate,” she said in a morning statement. Ms. Stabenow, 72 years old, said she would leave the Senate at the end of her term on Jan. 3, 2025. She is chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee and was first elected to the Senate in 2000.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., announced Thursday that she won't seek re-election in 2024, setting the stage for a competitive Senate race in a key battleground state during a presidential election year. Garlin Gilchrist, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Attorney General Dana Nessel and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who gained a national following last year after going viral with her pushback against anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Stabenow has served in the Senate since 2001 and previously served in the House from 1997 until her career began in the upper chamber. She holds several Democratic leadership roles including Senate Democratic Policy Committee chair and chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She has served alongside Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., since he came to Congress in 2015.

Friday’s release of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns from his four years in the White House and two years prior is an important and long overdue public service. It also would have been a warning shot to any future presidents who may want to keep their tax returns private. ), chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, asked the agency for information related to Trump’s tax returns. Ultimately, though, it’s on House Democrats that the Trump tax documents release on Friday were so limited. So they couched their court case as looking into the effectiveness of mandatory IRS audits of tax returns of all sitting presidents.

☆ Billy Strings Found a Life Raft in Music
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Alan Paul | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Billy Strings, 30, is one of the fastest-rising touring acts in American music. Mr. Strings’s love of high-flying, risk-taking improvisation has endeared him to fans of jam bands like Phish and let him expand far beyond the bluegrass world where he started. Though he built his reputation on magnetic live performances, Mr. Strings’s career skyrocketed during the Covid pandemic, when touring was shut down. He started streaming performances from his home, then moved on to broadcasting from empty clubs, culminating in six nights at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y. “It felt like the Twilight Zone,” says Mr. Strings. “Live music is a conversation between the audience and the performer, but there was nobody talking back to us, and it honestly felt kind of pitiful.”

☆ How government spending bill may help prevent abuse of federal tax incentive for land conservation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The $1.7 trillion federal spending bill includes a new change that will curb the abuse of tax incentives for land conservation. The $1.7 trillion federal spending bill includes a new change that will curb the abuse of tax incentives for land conservation. Federal conservation easements enable property owners to take a charitable deduction when they give up certain rights to develop land. The original bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and in the Senate by Sens. "This is a great victory for conservation," said Lori Faeth, senior director of government relations at the Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization that has advocated for the bill since it was first introduced.

☆ Six battleground states will hold the key to the White House in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

AP Photo/Andrew HarnikGeorgia2012 margin: Romney +7.8%2016 margin: Trump +5.1%2020 margin: Biden +0.2%For decades, Republicans could easily depend on the Peach State's electoral votes falling into their column. Two years later, Biden won the state by roughly 12,000 votes over Trump, followed by the dual 2021 runoff victories of Sens. AP Photo/Matt RourkePennsylvania2012 margin: Obama +5.4%2016 margin: Trump +0.7%2020 margin: Biden +1.2%Biden's hometown of Scranton is dear to his heart so Pennsylvania was always going to be a key state for the party in 2024. AP Photo/Andy Manis, FileWisconsin2012 margin: Obama +6.9%2016 margin: Trump +0.8%2020 margin: Biden +0.6%Wisconsin is one of the most politically-divided states in the country. But Trump flipped Wisconsin to the GOP in 2016, the first time it had supported a Republican presidential nominee since 1984.

☆ House passes $1.7 trillion spending bill that rewrites U.S. election law, sending it to Biden to sign
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Sahil-Kapur-Headshot.Jpg | Sahil Kapur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON — The House on Friday voted to finalize a massive $1.7 trillion government funding bill, sending it to President Joe Biden and marking the end of two years of Democrats controlling both chambers of Congress. It overhauls federal election law by revising the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to try to prevent another Jan. 6. The bill funds a swath of domestic programs as well, averting a shutdown and keeping the government funded through next fall. “We have a big bill here, because we have big needs for our country,” outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the floor. The measure was negotiated by Democratic leaders and top Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

So yeah, I’m proud of it,” McConnell said, hailing it as an “extremely important” win for conservatives. He said it’ll mean they no longer “pay a ransom on the domestic side” in order to secure hefty military spending. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.. said he’s “disappointed” in the unequal spending levels but argued that the Kentucky Republican was using his leverage. Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks alongside Sens. Democrats say McConnell was pushing for deals due to the rising support in the Democratic Party in recent years to end the filibuster.

☆ Morning Bid: Not so fast
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A trader works on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., December 14, 2022. Or so you might think looking at what consumers reckon will happen to price pressures over the coming year. The Federal Reserve keeps declaring its intention to fight inflation with both barrels, which inevitably means more rate hikes. Sure, it's down from the 4.7% in Q2 and it's the third and final reading of what happened months ago now. A look at the data shows consumers have typically been a lot more pessimistic about inflation than they've needed to be.

Inflation may be picking up in Japan but that's in large part due to the yen's weakness this year. chartJapan's economic surprises index is still negative, having rolled over this month. Others, like the China and emerging market indexes, have fallen off a cliff in recent days and are deeply negative. China's economic surprises index is hovering around its lowest level since June, and the emerging market index this week hit its lowest and most negative level in over a year. With the U.S. economic surprises index now in negative territory and the lowest since September, growth fears are mounting and risk assets are feeling the heat.

Search resuls for: "Mich"

25 mentions found