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☆ Why Walmart is closing half its stores in Chicago
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Walmart announced Tuesday that next week it will close four poor-performing stores out of the eight it operates in Chicago. Now, it's closing four Chicago stores. Walmart said its remaining four Chicago stores “continue to face the same business difficulties,” but it believes closing these four will give the others the best chance of staying open. There were fears that Walmart and other businesses would leave Chicago, but Walmart pledged to stay and invest in the city. Some retailers have also cited higher levels of theft and other crime in their city stores.

☆ Check out the exclusive pitch deck that Trala, a startup offering virtual violin lessons, used to raise $8 million from investors like Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

TralaTrala is a startup that helps adult violin students learn to play from virtual lessons. Now, the company has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six. For Trala cofounder and CEO Sam Walder, music has always been a huge part of his life. That app, called Trala, allows students to take virtual violin lessons with an instructor, and follow a practice and lesson plan. Check out the 18-slide pitch deck that edtech startup Trala used to raise $8 million in Series A funding:

☆ 'Steady hand': China surprisingly retains central bank chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Kevin Yao | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

BEIJING, March 12 (Reuters) - Yi Gang's surprise re-appointment as China's central bank governor on Sunday means a pro-market mind of high international stature will continue to represent the world's second-largest economy on the global stage. The PBOC governor has high global exposure through institutions such as the Group of 20, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and others. "The central bank governor is not a job that can be easily taken over by someone else. Under Yi, the central bank has cut the reserve ratio 14 times since early 2018, pumping more than 10 trillion yuan into the economy. "Yi has been a steady hand in managing policy and the appointment underlines the importance of policy stability," said a policy insider who spoke on condition anonymity.

☆ Meet the 4 men tipped to run China’s economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Hong Kong CNN —The team of Communist Party officials running China’s economy is about to get a major makeover. They include the four men tipped to manage the world’s second biggest economy: Li Qiang as premier, Ding Xuexiang as executive vice premier, He Lifeng as vice premier and Zhu Hexin as the new central bank chief. That puts the 63-year-old in line to succeed Premier Li Keqiang when he steps down during the upcoming congress. Li would be the first premier since the Mao era not to have previously worked at the State Council, China’s cabinet, as vice premier, analysts say. Stringer/ICHPL Imaginechina/AP/FileThe 68-year-old would succeed Vice Premier Liu He, who led China’s negotiations with the United States during trade talks in 2018 and 2019.

☆ Analysis: Why public health officials are not panicked about bird flu
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Julie Steenhuysen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

They say the attributes that have made this virus thrive in wild birds likely make it less infectious to people. Although the exact changes required for a bird flu virus to become easily transmissible in people are not known, a pair of landmark studies done a decade ago offer some clues. Mink have both avian and human-type receptors, but avian receptors are scarce in humans and located deep in the lungs. That change is a must if a bird flu virus is to spread easily in people. None of the experts discounted the possibility that H5N1 or another avian flu virus could mutate and spark a pandemic, and many believe the world has not seen its last flu pandemic.

In protests that followed the killing and the police sweeps, six people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism. In December, the same charges were filed against five people after law enforcement moved in to clear barricades and confront protesters. But in a number of states, including Georgia, domestic terrorism laws include a wide range of offenses outside those motivated by hate. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund said that the state of Georgia was trying to “set an alarming precedent” with the charges. “If they are successful, protesters across the country could be facing similar speech-chilling ‘domestic terrorism’ charges,'” it said in a statement this week.

☆ Rolling back laws that set minimum wages for construction workers meant pay shrunk, jobs got more dangerous, and workers had to rely more on public assistance
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A new study looks at the impact of rolling back prevailing wage laws on wages and workers. Prevailing wage laws set pay standards for government contract workers, particularly construction workers. Researchers Frank Manzo, Robert Bruno, and Larissa Petrucci examine the impact of repealing prevailing wage laws — laws that essentially set minimum wages for construction workers on government contracts. Historically, prevailing wage laws have helped plug labor shortages, and contractors could have trouble competing with higher-paying competitors across the country. Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Wisconsin, and Michigan all repealed their prevailing wage laws between 2015 and 2018.

☆ Gen Z loves the flip phone
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Now, Gen-Z’s latest “vintage” obsession is the flip phone – that mid-1990s era phone that has suddenly become oh so popular with millennials. “I’m team flip phone revolution,” singer Camila Cabello tweeted Thursday, posing with a TCL flip phone, vintage. Maybe I can write the theme song guys 💪💪💪💪 pic.twitter.com/yOJgCdAgNq — camila (@Camila_Cabello) January 13, 2023“I found a little 90s, Matrix-y flip phone,” Cameron said. “At parties people will say, ‘oh my goodness, is that a flip phone?,’” Palazzolo said. And yes, new Nokia flip phones are still available – the Nokia 2760 Flip is sold at Walmart from prepaid brands such as Verizon for $19.99.

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☆ CNH Industrial union workers at two U.S. plants reject proposed contract
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Bianca Flowers | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Still, union members said the proposed contract failed to provide enough of a raise to combat inflation, additional vacation days or better healthcare coverage. The UAW represents about 1,000 workers at the plants, and union officials had warned a rejection of the latest offer was likely. With a tightening labor market, union workers in the industrial sector for companies such as Boeing (BA.N) and Deere & Co (DE.N) have gone on strike in recent years. For CNH workers, who last struck the company in 2004, some have taken second jobs to augment strike pay they receive from the UAW. Reporting by Bianca Flowers in Racine, Wisconsin; Editing by Leslie Adler, Ben Klayman, William Mallard and Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Dogs poop less if they eat human-grade food, but it may not be better for their health, say experts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

It's not clear whether human-grade food is better for dogs' health, experts said. A 2021 study followed the poop output of 12 dogs fed "fresh" dog food (from the FreshPet brand), classic dog food ( from Blue Buffalo), or "human-grade" beef or chicken dog food (JustFoodForDogs) for 28 days. The study found that the dogs pooped around half as much when eating fresh and human-grade food — a drop of 50% to 70%. None so far have definitively shown that kibble or canned food is worse for the dog's health or lifespan, he said. In the process, molecules that could be bad for your dog's health appear in the food.

☆ Matt Hill: White House aide leaving to be communications director for newly established CHIPS program office
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jeremy Diamond | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Matt Hill, a longtime communications aide to President Joe Biden, is leaving the White House for the Department of Commerce to steer communications for the implementation of the administration’s multi-billion-dollar investment in the semiconductor industry. Hill will serve as the communications director for the newly established CHIPS program office, which is responsible for implementing the $50 billion investment in semiconductor manufacturing authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act. “Matt has been a backbone of President Biden’s communications team since the very first day of the campaign,” said White House communications director Kate Bedingfield. Hill also advised Biden’s infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu and Gina McCarthy, who served as Biden’s national climate adviser until earlier this year. “During my time in the White House, Matt proved himself to be a smart, savvy communications expert who helped transform the climate change narrative in ways that generated excitement, built hope and expanded engagement,” McCarthy said.

The United States has just about 90 million planted acres of corn, and there's a reason people refer to the crop as yellow gold. In 2021, U.S. corn was worth over $86 billion, according to calculations from FarmDoc and the United States Department of Agriculture. "We're really good at [corn production]," Seth Meyer, chief economist at the USDA, told CNBC. Corn is in what we buy, including medications and textiles, and corn is turned into ethanol, which helps to fuel cars across the nation. "Do we get the corn acres because we've got the support, or do we have the support because we have the corn acres?"

☆ Biden at 80: A ‘respecter of fate’ considers a second White House bid
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

US President Joe Biden disembarks from Air Force One upon his arrival at the airport of Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh, to attend the COP27 climate conference, on November 11, 2022. It's soon time for Joe Biden, 80 on Sunday, to decide whether he has one more mountain to climb — the one to a second term as president. Getty: President Joe Biden gives remarks on student debt relief at Delaware State University on October 21, 2022 in Dover, Delaware. "While President Biden may chronologically be 80 years old, biologically he probably isn't," he said. U.S. President Joe Biden smiles during a rally with Democratic nominee for Maryland Governor Wes Moore, U.S.

☆ How Ukraine Blew Up a Key Russian Bridge
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Marco Hernandez | James Glanz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

Last month, a truck laden with explosives drove across the Kerch bridge, a critical artery connecting Russia with its troops fighting in southern Ukraine. Structural and explosive experts who reviewed the bridge’s design and imagery of the blast offered new details on how the bridge was damaged. There are few direct parallels to such a spectacular act of sabotage on a bridge behind enemy lines in wartime. The blast ignited a train carrying large fuel tanks on an adjacent bridge, creating flames and a plume of smoke. “If it were a suicide truck bomb,” Mr. Nair said, “I would think the guy would have destroyed the main span.”But the trigger for the bomb is still unknown.

[1/5] Yael Gabay, The Plant Based Treaty global co-director with a team give away free vegan burgers during COP27 climate summit in Red Sea resort at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 14, 2022. "We have to move away from animal production." "It would result in more intensive livestock production that would require larger areas of land to produce the animal feed, putting pressure on forest land," Reisinger told Reuters. THE OTHER WHITE MEATCampaigners have even protested the food kiosks at the summit selling burgers and chicken - foods they say don't belong at a climate conference. "When you enter the conference, you have the scent of grilled animal meat in your nose.

Ronald Reagan was 77 when he left the White House, but President Joe Biden, who turns 80 on Nov. 20, would be 86 by the time a second four-year term ends, should he win it. About a quarter of Republicans, 26%, think Trump may not be up for 2024 because of his age. Political affiliation aside, 68% of people surveyed think Biden may not be up for the challenge two years from now, and 49% say the same about Trump. Some 86% of Americans said they believe the cutoff for serving as president should be age 75 or younger, the poll found. Some Biden supporters said they admired Democrats' success under Biden, but were still uncertain about a possible next term.

☆ Homes in White neighborhoods are being appraised at higher values than in communities of color, new report finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Nicquel Terry Ellis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Homes in predominately White neighborhoods are being assessed at twice the value of homes in communities of color with comparable amenities, according to a new report released Wednesday. Some families also had White friends stand in for them during the appraisal to get a higher value. The report, titled “Appraised: The Persistent Evaluation of White Neighborhoods as More Valuable Than Communities of Color,” notes that the racial inequities were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in an unprecedented rise in home values. “Home value inequalities are the result of appraisal practices that elevate White spaces as the most valuable. Howell said the method being used by appraisers gives them the authority to determine a home’s value and what they consider a comparable neighborhood.

☆ S.C. governor says marriage should be 'between a man and a woman' at debate
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Matt Lavietes | Matt Lavietes Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said Wednesday that he would back his state's defunct law banning same-sex marriage if the Supreme Court were to overturn its 2015 landmark gay marriage ruling. "Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I think marriage ought to be between a man and a woman — just like I think that boys ought to play in boy sports and girls ought to play in girl sports," McMaster, 75, said. Cunningham appeared shocked, replying: "It's 2022 and Governor McMaster wants to ban same-sex marriage — you just heard that tonight, folks. If the landmark decision were reversed, it would once again fall to the states to decide on the legality of same-sex marriage. Lawmakers in Congress have introduced a measure that would federally permit same-sex marriage, the Respect for Marriage Act.

BEIJING/HONG KONG, Oct 22 (Reuters) - China's central bank chief Yi Gang is likely to step down after he was dropped from an elite body of the ruling Communist Party, with a former central banker a leading contender to succeed him, sources close to the central bank said. Yi is among pro-reform policymakers not named on Saturday as full or alternate members of the party's new Central Committee. Also excluded were outgoing Premier Li Keqiang, 67, economic czar Liu He, 70, and central bank party chief Guo Shuqing, 66. Yin Yong, deputy party chief in the capital Beijing who worked as a deputy central bank governor from 2016 to 2018, is a leading candidate to replace Yi, sources close to the central bank said. Xuan Changneng was named deputy central bank governor on Thursday.

☆ Covid was a contributing factor in 25% of maternal deaths in 2020 and 2021
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

It finds that pregnancy-related deaths have spiked nearly 80% since 2018, with Covid-19 being a factor in a quarter of the 1,178 deaths reported last year. “We were already in the middle of a crisis with maternal mortality in our country,” said Karen Tabb Dina, a maternal health researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The maternal death rate is particularly stark for Black women, who have long faced worse maternal outcomes than their peers. Pregnancy-related deaths for every 100,000 births climbed from 44 in 2019 to 68.9 among Black women last year. More than half of rural counties didn’t have a hospital offering pregnancy care as of 2018, the review found.

While going through a costly divorce earlier this year, Cavanaugh's flood insurance coverage lapsed. Many people in the small coastal community, which faces the Gulf of Mexico southwest of Fort Myers, did not have flood insurance coverage. It appears that, despite an increased occurrence of devastating flood events, a declining percentage of people nationwide have flood insurance policies. Chuck Larsen / SantivaChronicle.com via APOne significant issue is that many homeowners assume a typical homeowner's insurance policy covers floods. The average cost of flood insurance from the National Flood Insurance Program is $995 a year, according to Forbes Advisor analysis.

☆ A new study confirms it: The pandemic turned us all into jerks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Graceless under pressureTo see how the pandemic affected us, researchers looked at the so-called Big Five personality traits: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness. But the new study found a surprising shift during the pandemic — roughly equivalent to what they'd expect from 10 years of life, not two. During the first months of the pandemic, Sutin's team found little personality change. "The only thing that went wrong," says Brent Roberts, a psychologist and expert in personality change at the University of Illinois, "is the goddamn pandemic kept going." For some Americans, the most stressful thing about the pandemic was experts telling them they should help people they don't like.

☆ Netflix's head of accessibility grew up with deaf parents, and it made her more aware that TV subtitles can be terrible
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Netflix's first Director of Product Accessibility, Heather Dowdy, told Insider what drives her. Growing up with deaf parents, she was aware of gaps in subtitles and when they "messed up." Having deaf parents meant she was constantly aware of mistakes and gaps in subtitles, she said. But TV subtitles are now used far more widely than by people who are deaf or hard of hearing. 'Feedback is crucial'Dowdy said people who are hard of hearing or deaf aren't included enough in the process of making subtitles.

☆ A 35-year-old financial coach who was raised in poverty gave 3 pieces of advice for getting and staying out of debt — and shares one thing she wishes she did differently when paying off her student lo
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( A.J. Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

"I got some grants, but also took out some student loans." I've been paying on these student loans and I still owe the same amount and I don't get why." According to the Federal Reserve, the total amount of consumer debt at the end of 2021 — including mortgages, student loans, auto loans, and credit card debt — was $15.6 trillion. Wolfe gave Insider three tips for getting and staying out of debt — and shared one thing she wishes she did differently when she was paying off her student loans. "It could potentially mean a lifetime of debt," Wolfe said.

☆ They Wanted Good Light and a Dog Park. But the Front Door Could Not Face South.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

When Anjali Ramani and Konstantinos Koiliaris set out to look for a new home last summer, they knew they wanted something turnkey, with good light and at least 1,000 square feet. Ms. Ramani, 26, was born in Singapore to an Indian family committed to Vastu Shastra, the ancient Indian philosophy of architecture and design. “When my parents checked, they told us the door either had to face north or east to be good for us and to bring us happiness,” Ms. Ramani said. “We always thought we’d start with something small, maybe just try to get our hands on a one-bedroom, and go from there,” Ms. Ramani said. “A lot of our house-hunting was actually about his preferences,” Ms. Ramani said.

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