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Guarding Royal Families for $1,000 a Day: Inside Executive Protection Jobs 2024-04-07 09:00:39.441000+00:00 - Monica Duperon Rodriguez welled up with feelings of awe when she stepped off a charter flight onto the Serengeti in Africa for a job assignment. “The thought that came to my mind was: ‘This poor girl from this police department is standing in the Serengeti,’” she said. “I would have never in my entire life imagined myself being there.” A layperson might mistake the job that swept her across the ocean as “bodyguard.” Professionals trained to her level of diplomacy, communication and planning earn the title of “executive protection specialist,” or E.P. agent. Ms. Rodriguez said her training started early. As the oldest child growing up in a one-bedroom apartment supported by a single mother, she felt a need to protect her three siblings from the drugs and drive-by shootings in her Chicago-area neighborhood.
“University Challenge” Questions: How Do You Stack Up? 2024-04-07 07:05:01+00:00 - Fair warning: These are tough. And in this version there are two wrong answers offered along with the correct one. Not so on the the show.
A Dubai company’s staggering land deals in Africa raise fears about risks to Indigenous livelihoods 2024-04-07 07:03:51+00:00 - ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Matthew Walley’s eyes sweep over the large forest that has sustained his Indigenous community in Liberia for generations. Even as the morning sun casts a golden hue over the canopy, a sense of unease lingers. Their use of the land is being threatened, and they have organized to resist the possibility of losing their livelihood. In the past year, the Liberian government has agreed to sell about 10% of the West African country’s land — equivalent to 10,931 square kilometers (4,220 square miles) — to Dubai-based company Blue Carbon to preserve forests that might otherwise be logged and used for farming, the primary livelihood for many communities. Blue Carbon, which did not respond to repeated emails and calls seeking comment, plans to make money from this conservation by selling carbon credits to polluters to offset their emissions as they burn fossil fuels. Some experts argue that the model offers little climate benefit, while activists label it “carbon colonialism.” Activists say the government has no legal right over the land and that Liberian law acknowledges Indigenous land ownership. The government and Blue Carbon reached an agreement in March 2023 — months after the company’s launch — without consulting local communities, which are concerned about a lack of protections. “There is no legal framework on carbon credits in Liberia, and so we don’t have rules and regulations to fight for ourselves as a community,” said Walley, whose community, Neezuin, could see about 573 square kilometers signed away to Blue Carbon. A raft of agreements between at least five African countries and Blue Carbon could give the company control over large swaths of land on the continent. In Kenya, Indigenous populations already have been evicted to make way for other carbon credits projects, according to rights groups like Amnesty International and Survival International. They have criticized the projects as “culturally destructive,” lacking transparency and threatening the livelihoods and food security of rural African populations. “Many such projects are associated with appalling human rights abuses against local communities at the hands of park rangers,” said Simon Counsell, an independent researcher of conservation projects in Kenya, Congo, Cameroon and other countries. “The majority had involved evictions, most were involved in conflict with local people, and almost none had ever sought or gained the landholders’ consent,” said Counsell, former director of Rainforest Foundation UK, a nonprofit that supports both human rights and environmental protection. Africa contributes the least to greenhouse gas emissions, but its vast natural resources, such as forests, are crucial in the fight against climate change. Indigenous populations traditionally rely on forests for their livelihoods, highlighting the tension between climate goals and economic realities. Cash-strapped governments in Africa are attracted to these kinds of conservation initiatives because they generate badly needed income despite concerns about human rights abuses and transparency. Blue Carbon has only one project under development in Zimbabwe, which involves approximately 20% of the country’s land, according to the company’s website. However, through opaque agreements, the company has potentially secured staggering amounts of land across other countries, including Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania and Zambia, since forming in late 2022. In Liberia, the government is required to obtain prior, informed consent from communities before using their land for such deals. However, former President George Weah’s government moved forward without it, according to activists and communities. Communities only became aware after activists mobilized against the deal following a leak through a network of nongovernmental organizations. Although the agreement said talks with communities would be done last November, locals and activists reported that they did not happen. “There is no opposition to fighting climate change, but it has to be done in a way that respects people’s rights and does not breach the law,” said Ambulah Mamey, a Liberian activist who has helped galvanize opposition to the Blue Carbon deal. After protests from communities and activists, Weah’s government halted the deal before the presidential vote last year, but he still lost the election. “We resolved to vote the George Weah government out to stop the deal, which will devastatingly affect communities, but we don’t know if the new government will restart it,” said Walley, the community leader. “We are waiting for them.” The new director of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency, Emmanuel Yarkpawolo, said the Blue Carbon deal was rushed through “a quick process that does not lend itself to a good level of transparency.” He confirmed the deal is on hold and said Liberia is now developing rules for selling carbon credits, which will “emphasize balance between environmental goals and economic well-being of our people and take care of concerns about Indigenous people’s rights, including alternative livelihood means.” Blue Carbon in March sent out invitations to developers, asking for proposals for carbon offset projects. The company document, which activists shared with The Associated Press, does not say which countries it is targeting, just that basic land information will be shared with applicants. The process seems “extraordinarily opaque” given the significant amount of some countries’ land involved, said Counsell, the conservation researcher. He raised concerns about whether governments understand it, let alone the people living in those areas. “They are precisely the kind of opaque and inequitable arrangements that the U.N. should very specifically be guarding against as it continues to develop the rules for a global carbon market,” Counsell said in an email. Blue Carbon was founded by Emirati royal Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, whose private holdings include fossil fuel operations. It has not disclosed the governments or companies that will buy the credits generated from its carbon projects. The effectiveness of carbon offsetting itself is debated. One concern is the concept of “additionality,” or the amount of carbon that a project claims it reduces through preventing deforestation. In many cases, it’s possible those reductions could have happened anyway. A study by Counsell and Survival International on one carbon credit initiative, called the Northern Kenya Grassland Carbon Project, says livestock farmers whose livelihoods were upended by the project had operated within “broadly sustainable limits.” This, Walley said, is similar to the practice of communities in Liberia, where they have a duty to conserve forests under government rules. In addition, 40% of Liberia’s forestland is already protected. “This means that the project, in climate terms, has no ‘additionality,’ and any carbon credits generated do not represent genuine new savings of carbon,” Counsell said. Plus, over time, trees release the carbon they’re storing back into the atmosphere through natural aging, forest fires or commercial use, which undermines the idea of forests absorbing carbon permanently, Counsell said. There is also the problem of a “zero” benefit to the climate. Protecting forests in one area may result in deforestation elsewhere as communities affected by conservation projects move to earn a living. ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Q: Who Found a Way to Crack the U.K.’s Premier Quiz Show? 2024-04-07 07:02:08+00:00 - Brandon Blackwell sits in his apartment in the Jamaica section of Queens, training with a collection of 30,000 homemade flash cards the way weight lifters train with barbells. Each card contains an obscure fact about the world. Which country is home to Lake Assal, the largest salt reserve on earth? (Djibouti). Which metal is smelted using the Hall-Héroult process? (Aluminum). It is the fall of 2016 and the 22-year-old is struggling to reach the highest echelons in the little-known world of competitive quizzing. He’s earned about $400,000 by appearing on “Jeopardy!” Teen Tournament, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and a handful of other shows. But he fares poorly when up against top quizzers in online contests and does not exactly dazzle at the Quiz Olympiad held in Athens that year. Mr. Blackwell wants to get better. Much, much better. He’d also like to turn quizzing into a full-time job, although how exactly that will happen is unclear. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that he has no choice. He has to move to London. “Eight of the top 20 quizzers on the planet lived there,” he said during a recent interview. “It’s the epicenter and competing in the city was the only way I was going to improve quickly.”
Health Insurers’ Lucrative, Little-Known Alliance: 5 Takeaways 2024-04-07 07:02:05.440000+00:00 - To investigate this largely hidden facet of the health care industry, The Times interviewed more than 100 patients, doctors, billing specialists, health plan advisers and former MultiPlan employees, and reviewed more than 50,000 pages of documents, including confidential records made public by two federal judges after petitions from The Times. Here are five takeaways. The smaller the payout to doctors, the bigger the fees for insurers and MultiPlan When patients see medical providers outside their plans’ networks, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Aetna and other insurers often send the bills to MultiPlan to recommend a payment amount.
Oregon Powerball player wins $1.3B jackpot after drawing delay 2024-04-07 06:48:41+00:00 - DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion on Sunday, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. The single ticket — revealed following a delay of more than three hours to the drawing — matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot worth $1.326 billion, Powerball said in a statement. The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings. The winning numbers drawn early Sunday morning were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9. The Oregon Lottery said the winning ticket was sold in Portland, Oregon. “I want to congratulate the winner on this life changing moment, Oregon Lottery Director Mike Wells said in a statement. “No one in Oregon has ever won a prize on this scale, and it’s a very exciting for our staff and players.” The statement said the winner has a year to claim the top prize. According to state law, players in Oregon, with few exceptions, cannot remain anonymous. Previously the largest Powerball prize won in Oregon was a $340 million jackpot in 2005. The last Powerball jackpot win in Oregon was a $150.4 million prize claimed by a Salem man in 2018. Until the latest drawing, no one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021. The $1.326 billion prize ranks as the eighth largest in U.S. lottery history. As the prizes grow, the drawings attract more ticket sales, which can increase the chance that jackpots will be shared among multiple winners. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 292.2 million. Saturday night’s scheduled drawing was held up and took place in the Florida Lottery studio just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday to enable one of the organizers to complete required procedures before the scheduled time of 10:59 p.m., Powerball said in a statement. “Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn,” the statement said. “This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win. Tonight, we have one jurisdiction that needs extra time to complete that pre-draw process.” Oregon Powerball player wins a $1.3 billion jackpot, ending more than 3 months without a grand prize AP correspondent Julie Walker reports an Oregon Powerball player wins the $1.3 billion jackpot. Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball officials didn’t immediately say where the verification issue occurred. It’s the second time a delay occurred in the drawing for a huge Powerball jackpot in the past 17 months. In November 2022, the Powerball drawing for a record $2.04 billion, won by a single ticket sold in southern California, was pushed back by nearly 10 hours. The Minnesota Lottery announced later that there was a technical issue with its two-tiered verification process, which is operated by outside vendors.
Britain’s staycation boom may be over as bookings dry up 2024-04-07 05:01:00+00:00 - Is the British staycation boom over? Short-term holiday rentals experienced a surge in recent years, especially during the pandemic, when Britons stayed at home in the UK, leading to a spike in rates. However, holiday-let owners across the UK are reporting a significant fall in bookings so far this year as the sector feels the effects of the cost of living crisis, poor weather and an increasingly saturated market. Helen Angove, 58, managing director of Woodland Collection Holidays in Townshend, Cornwall, about 10 miles from tourist hotspot St Ives, said demand in January and February fell by about 80% across her four three-bedroom holiday lets on the same period last year. “This year we had hardly any bookings at all in January or February. March and April bookings are down 20%.” She attributes much of the sluggish demand to the poor weather. “So many [people] are fed up with the wet weather. They are going abroad to get some sunshine. The second big factor is the massive oversupply of holiday lets. A lot of people thought they could make easy money because of what happened during Covid.” View image in fullscreen The one-bed cottage let out by Miriam Vanags in St Clears, Wales. She says guests have become much more demanding. Photograph: Handout Data supplied from AirDNA, which tracks listings on holiday rental sites Airbnb and Vrbo, found 342,000 short-term lets available in the UK in the 12 months to February 2024, up 19% on the previous year. New listings for homes in the UK jumped 22% year on year in 2023, while new apartment listings increased by 16%. Yvonne Turnbull, 58, who lives in Horsham, West Sussex, has been letting out a three-bedroom apartment in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, for between £150 and £175 a night, including through Airbnb, for the past six years. She said demand was significantly down on previous years, with no bookings for January, February or March, including half-term, and fewer bookings over Easter. Turnbull said Scarborough was now oversupplied with holiday lets. “When we started there were about 200 Airbnbs in the town. Now you’re looking at 1,000.” Nor is the problem limited to seaside destinations. Veeve, which offers short-term rentals, has seen a 21% drop in booking values across its London portfolio of more than 500 properties from January to 19 March since the same period last year. View image in fullscreen St Ives, Cornwall, is still popular, but demand for lets nearby has fallen significantly. Photograph: Ben Pipe Photography/Getty Images/Image Source The lack of bookings is another hit to the holiday-let industry after the government announced increased regulation and the end of tax relief from April 2025 in last month’s budget. New controls on holiday lets in England will be introduced this summer, including a mandatory national registration scheme and councils being given greater powers if they want to use them to control short-term lets by making them subject to the planning process. Martin Dunford, founder of accommodation site Cool Places, said inquiries for UK self-catering accommodation were slightly down on last year but higher than before the pandemic. “We are finding that people are more careful. They have less money, tend to book later, watch the weather and try to get more for their money.” Miriam Vanags, 60, and her husband have run a one-bedroom holiday cottage on their 18-acre smallholding in St Clears, Wales, for the past 17 years. She said people were demanding a lot more for their money. “They expect more of a hotel experience. Now we see a huge number of requests for hot tubs and wood burners, which seem to be deal breakers. Trends change.” She added: “We have considered long-term letting and that is something we may revisit. Selling up may become a necessity, depending on whether things pick up.”
Victims of Montana asbestos pollution that killed hundreds take Warren Buffett’s railroad to court 2024-04-07 04:30:02+00:00 - LIBBY, Mont. (AP) — Paul Resch remembers playing baseball as a kid on a field constructed from asbestos-tainted vermiculite, mere yards from railroad tracks where trains kicked up clouds of dust as they hauled the contaminated material from a mountaintop mine through the northwestern Montana town of Libby. He liked to sneak into vermiculite-filled storage bins at an adjacent rail yard, to trap pigeons that he would feed, during long days spent by the tracks along the Kootenai River. Today, Resch, 61, is battling an asbestos-related disease that has severely scarred his left lung. He’s easily winded, quickly tires and knows there is no cure for an illness that could suffocate him over time. “At some point, probably everybody got exposed to it,” he said, speaking of asbestos-tainted vermiculite. “There was piles of it along the railroad tracks. ... You would get clouds of dust blowing around downtown.” Almost 25 years after federal authorities responding to news reports of deaths and illnesses descended on Libby, a town of about 3,000 people near the U.S.-Canada border, some asbestos victims and their family members are seeking to hold publicly accountable one of the major corporate players in the tragedy: BNSF Railway. Hundreds of people died and more than 3,000 have been sickened from asbestos exposure in the Libby area, according to researchers and health officials. Texas-based BNSF faces accusations of negligence and wrongful death for failing to control clouds of contaminated dust that used to swirl from the rail yard and settle across Libby’s neighborhoods. The vermiculite was shipped by rail from Libby for use as insulation in homes and businesses across the U.S. The first trial among what attorneys say are hundreds of lawsuits against BNSF for its alleged role polluting the Libby community is scheduled to begin Monday. The railroad — owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. — has denied responsibility in court filings and declined further comment. Resch works at an auto dealership in Libby and his wife is listed as a plaintiff in a pending lawsuit against BNSF in Montana’s asbestos claims court. He’s uncertain whether his sickness came from the rail yard. The Libby high school track included contaminated vermiculite, as did insulation in the walls and attics of homes he entered during his two decades as a volunteer firefighter. The plaintiffs for the upcoming trial against BNSF, the estates of Joyce Walder and Thomas Wells, lived near the Libby rail yard and moved away decades ago. Both died in 2020 of mesothelioma, a rare lung cancer caused by asbestos that is disproportionately common in Libby. The mine a few miles outside town once produced up to 80% of global vermiculite supplies. It closed in 1990. Nine years later, the Environmental Protection Agency arrived in Libby and a subsequent cleanup has cost an estimated $600 million, with most covered by taxpayer money. It’s ongoing, but authorities say asbestos volumes in downtown Libby’s air are 100,000 times lower than when the mine was operating. Awareness about the dangers of asbestos grew significantly over the intervening years, and last month the EPA banned the last remaining industrial uses of asbestos in the U.S. The ban did not include the type of asbestos fiber found in Libby or address so-called “legacy” asbestos that’s already in homes, schools and businesses. A long-awaited government analysis of the remaining risks is due by Dec. 1. Asbestos doesn’t burn and resists corrosion, making it long lasting in the environment. People who inhale the needle-shaped fibers can develop health problems as many as 40 years after exposure. Health officials expect to grapple with newly diagnosed cases of asbestos disease for decades. The EPA declared the nation’s first ever public health emergency under the Superfund cleanup program in Libby in 2009. The pollution led to civil claims from thousands of people who worked for the mine or the railroad, or who lived in the Libby area. During a yearslong cleanup of the Libby rail yard that began in 2003, crews excavated nearly the entire yard, removing about 18,000 tons of contaminated soil. In 2020, BNSF signed a consent decree with federal authorities resolving its cleanup work in Libby and nearby Troy, plus a 42-mile stretch (68 kilometers) of railroad right-of-way. Last year, BNSF won a federal lawsuit against an asbestos treatment clinic in Libby that a jury found submitted 337 false asbestos claims, making patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits. The judge overseeing the case ordered the Center for Asbestos Related Disease to pay almost $6 million in penalties and damages, forcing the facility into bankruptcy. It continues to operate with reduced staff. Some asbestos victims viewed the case as a ploy to discredit the clinic and undermine lawsuits against the railroad. BNSF said the verdict would deter “future misconduct” by the clinic. In the months leading up to this week’s trial, attorneys for BNSF repeatedly tried to deflect blame for people getting sick, including by pointing to the actions of W.R. Grace and Co., which owned the mine from 1963 until it closed. They also questioned whether other asbestos sources could have caused the two plaintiffs’ illnesses and suggested Walder and Wells would have been trespassing on railroad property. U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris blocked BNSF from blaming the conduct of others as a means of escaping liability. And he said the law doesn’t support the notion that trespassing reduces a property owner’s duty not to cause harm. Morris has yet to issue a definitive ruling on another key issue: the railroad’s claim that its obligation to ship goods for paying customers exempts it from liability. The plaintiffs argue the rail yard in downtown Libby — where Resch once played in piles of vermiculite — was used for storage and not just transportation, meaning the railroad is not exempt. Montana’s Supreme Court has ruled in a separate case that BNSF and its predecessors were more involved in the mine than simply shipping its product. Mine owner W.R. Grace filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and paid $1.8 billion into an asbestos trust fund to settle future cases. It paid about $270 million to government agencies for environmental damages and cleanup work. The state of Montana was also faulted in Libby, for failing to warn residents about asbestos exposure. It paid settlements totaling $68 million to about 2,000 plaintiffs. BNSF has settled some previous lawsuits for undisclosed amounts, attorneys for plaintiffs said. A second trial against the railroad over the death of a Libby resident is scheduled for May in federal court in Missoula. “I sure hope that they give those folks justice,” Resch said about the upcoming trials. “I mean everybody took part in it as far as corporate America goes.” ___ This story has been corrected to reflect the proper spelling of Warren Buffett’s last name. It is Buffett, not Buffet. __ Hanson reported from Helena, Montana.
Half a year into the war in Gaza, here’s a look at the conflict by the numbers 2024-04-06 14:52:00+00:00 - JERUSALEM — The Israel-Hamas war has stretched on for half a year and become one of the most destructive, deadly, and intractable conflicts of the 21st century. Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 cross-border attack, Israel has pummeled the Gaza Strip, displacing the vast majority of the population and causing many to flee to Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah. Food is scarce, the U.N. says famine is approaching and few Palestinians have been able to leave the besieged territory. Meanwhile, Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel from Gaza, and Hezbollah and other militant groups do so from southern Lebanon, prompting tit-for-tat fighting that has displaced thousands of civilians on both sides of Israel’s borders. Hamas is still holding hostages taken during the Oct. 7 raid, as well as the bodies of some who died in captivity. And cease-fire talks stretch on with no end in sight. Here’s a look at the conflict by numbers, which mainly come from the Israeli military and prime minister’s office, the Gaza health ministry, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and Associated Press reporting. TOTAL DEATHS Palestinians killed in Gaza: 33,137 Children killed in Gaza: more than 13,000 People killed in Israel: about 1,200 Palestinians killed in the West Bank: 456 People killed in Lebanon: at least 343 CIVILIANS Civilians killed in Gaza: Gaza’s health ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it says women and children have made up around two-thirds of those killed. Civilians and foreigners killed in Israel on Oct. 7: 780 First responders killed in Israel on Oct. 7: 62 Civilians killed since Oct. 7 in Israel along its northern border: 9 Civilians killed in Lebanon: At least 50 Aid workers killed in Gaza: 224, including at least 30 killed in the line of duty Health workers killed in Gaza: 484 Journalists killed in Gaza: At least 95 SOLDIERS/MILITANTS Militants killed by Israel in Gaza: more than 13,000, according to the Israeli military Israeli soldiers killed in the Gaza ground offensive: 256 Israeli soldiers killed on Oct. 7: 314 Israeli soldiers killed along Israel’s northern front since Oct. 7: 11 Militants killed in Lebanon: About 280, mostly from Hezbollah DESTRUCTION/HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN GAZA Percentage of buildings likely damaged/destroyed: 55.9% Percentage of homes likely damaged: more than 60% Percentage of school buildings damaged: 90% Hospitals that are functioning: 10/36 Palestinian civilians facing “catastrophic” food insecurity, according to the U.N.: 1.1 million Percentage of northern Gaza children under age 2 who are acutely malnourished: 31% Percentage of students out of school: 100% Mosques damaged: 227 Churches damaged: 3 INJURIES Palestinians injured in Gaza since Oct. 7: 75,815 Palestinians injured in the West Bank since Oct. 7: 4,750 Israeli soldiers injured since the beginning of the ground offensive: 1,549 Israeli civilians injured on Oct. 7: 4,834 DISPLACEMENT Palestinians currently displaced in Gaza: 1.7 million (70% of the population) Israelis currently displaced from border communities: 90,000 (under 1% of the population) HOSTAGES/PRISONERS Hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7: 253 Hostages freed: 123 Hostages who are alive or haven’t been confirmed dead: 98, including two who were taken before Oct. 7 Hostages confirmed to have died in Hamas captivity: 36, including two taken before Oct. 7 Palestinian prisoners freed during weeklong pause in fighting: 240
Fashion designer finds rewarding career as chef cooking up "big, happy, colorful" meals 2024-04-06 12:56:00+00:00 - More than 70% of Americans say a rewarding career or job is extremely important for them to live a fulfilling life — more important than family, friends or wealth. CBS News interviewed a broad array of workers who chose unique jobs, for a series we call: Unique jobs, extraordinary lives. Katya Ekimian, a private chef with a background in fashion design, has created custom knit gowns for high-profile guests at events including the famed Met Gala. She's well aware of how much appearances matter - at a recent fashion world dinner party, Ekimian, in charge of the food, not the dresses, knew to make sure both looked and tasted great. "I often work with actors, people in fashion, art and design, because I think there is a natural connection. With my background, it's natural that my clients would be in that line of work," she said. Ekimian, 25, has built a full roster of high-profile clients by word of mouth. Katya Ekimian She has made five custom dresses for Sandra Jarvis Weiss, who is married to Daniel Weiss, the former CEO and President of the Met, for the museum's annual ball, one of fashion's most-watched events. While she called the experience "a very special chapter" in her design career, she now spends her time thinking about food, including its flavor and physical form. "I love highlighting produce as close to its natural form and flavor. I'm able to be quite playful and silly with some of my clients; decorating food with farm animals, themed dinners, writing little messages in the food. It's always good fun when families have children as well," she said. Ekimian said bright colors make for great visual contrast on a table. Katya Ekimian It's a given that her food needs to taste good for clients to keep coming back, but it's also important that a table setting look beautiful and bountiful, she said. She adds personal touches to the way she plates food and sets tables. "Being able to have full creative control over an entire evening is really fun," she said. "It has so much to do with appearances, and I really enjoy making food look really pretty and fun. I love a big, happy, colorful meal." It's not just aesthetic — eating food of different colors looks good and also "makes for great nutritional balance," Ekimian said. Russian-American Ekimian, 25, was born in Washington, D.C., and lived in Cairo, Egypt as a teenager. At age 17, she moved to New York City to study fashion at the Parsons School of Design. Unlike many private chefs, Ekimian entered the field through an unexpected path. As a student in New York City in search of extra income, she started cooking meals for wealthy families. Later, at age 19, while working a summer job at a farm on Martha's Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, she resumed private cheffing and has since built a robust client list by word of mouth. "Right place at the right time" "I was at the right place at the right time, but I also had the experience," Ekimian told CBS MoneyWatch. She had worked as a private chef preparing weekly meals for a family in Harlem, New York; a gig she secured by responding to a job posting on Care.com, a site that connects families with caregivers. She had also worked at a food hall at Yosemite National Park, cooking buffet-style meals for more than 500 guests daily – her version of culinary school. Many of her peers attended culinary school and later entered the restaurant world. There are roughly 174,400 chefs and head cooks in the U.S., according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2022, the median salary for chefs was $56,520. By contrast, there are fewer private chefs, who earn an average of $45,510 annually, according to the BLS. Ekimian paved her path by combining her artistic sensibility with her on-the-job experience at the food hall. "It was the exact opposite of being a private chef," she said, adding that it's where she learned about food safety and picked up other skills required for the job. "I cooked pounds and pounds of bacon for a buffet. I learned a lot about food safety and handling. Because it was a big corporation, everything had to be by the book and FDA-approved. It was all standardized. To see food being produced at that large a scale was really informative." There was tons of demand for chefs on Martha's Vineyard and "normally you're stuck with whoever you can find on an island," said Ekimian. "When I got there people were excited that I was new there, and they said, 'Let's use her.'" While she didn't disclose the names of her clients for privacy reasons, it's home to several high-profile summer residents ranging from Hollywood actors to players in the political sphere. Former President Barack Obama has owned an island home since 2020. "That really launched my career. I would go over to people's houses in my overalls and cook them food. It really was a great opportunity to be in a great place with amazing produce I would get from local farms, plus the set of clientele. My entire client list has webbed off of that summer," Ekimian said. She currently juggles about seven to 10 clients at a time, which she considers a full workload. Some of her clients ask for weekly meal prep, while others hire her to cook for dinner parties. In New York City, it's not uncommon for a client to reach out and ask her to cook for a party the day before the event. "Sometimes it's like, 'Are you free tomorrow night?'" she said. "You can't be corporate" Ekimian occupies a unique place in her clients' lives. She's cooked for a range of clients with unusual dietary needs, including professional athletes with strict regimens, actors trying to cut weight for movie roles, and people experimenting with a new crop of appetite-suppressing drugs, like Ozempic. She became concerned one day when a longtime client didn't eat their meal, "I thought there must have been something wrong with it. But they said, 'No, it's so yummy, we're just full.' And that's when I realized they're all on Ozempic," she told CBS MoneyWatch. But people who only take a few bites of food and gawk at the rest make up a small sliver of her clientele - many others open up their lives and homes to her. It can be a tough balance, she said. "You can't be corporate, especially in long-term gigs, but it's a balance," Ekimian said. "You have to be warm and friendly because you're in someone's home, but you also always need to maintain a level of professionalism." She can spend all day in someone's home, often alone, but isn't their friend or a part of their family. She tries to maintain a demeanor she describes as "friendly professionalism." Ekimian travels with a 'granny cart' attached to the front of her Citibike. Katya Ekimian She almost always works solo; it's rarely cost-effective to hire help. Which means she spends most of her days alone. That includes time spent shopping for groceries and ingredients, prepping meals, labeling Tupperware containers and organizing clients' refrigerators. She sources the bulk of her ingredients from farmers markets or directly from farms. "It's lonely, and it's the same for everyone. You're so tired at the end of the day that all you want to do is lie down and go to bed, and you realize that you've been alone for 15 hours," she said. There are upsides to her unique arrangement that make it a satisfying career, though. She often travels with families she cooks for, with jobs taking her to Europe and the Caribbean. "It's an incredible perk of the job and such a special opportunity when you have a great bond with a family. It always makes the job so much more fun. And when you finish your shift, you can go for a walk and do your own exploring," she said. Ekimian has worked in Europe, The Caribbean, New York and Martha's Vineyard. Katya Ekimian Full creative control In her first job doing meal prep for a family in Harlem, she earned $15 an hour. She now has set hourly, daily and monthly rates, depending on the length of a job. According to Indeed.com, New York City-based private chefs earn an average of $38 an hour, and up to about $60 on the high end. She said she makes more money than she thinks she would in a fashion or design job, but still gets to freelance as a knitwear designer. She also finds ways to be creative while cooking, both with ingredients and flavors, and aesthetics - an outcome most seen when she caters to fashion events. "There is some fun crossover to it," she said. "That's when I can get really creative with what I am making," Ekimian said. Her fantasy is for her dinner guests to wear her knitwear creations while eating her food. "It would feel like a dream being able to create my own little world. Designing and then producing every aspect of what goes on the body and inside of it," she said. "For me, cooking and creating garments is also a form of love so it would be the ultimate expression of myself."
MarketBeat Week in Review – 4/1 - 4/5 2024-04-06 11:00:00+00:00 - Key Points Equities lost ground this week as investors now believe interest rates will stay higher for longer. Rising oil prices will refuel inflation and likely cause corporations to lower earnings guidance. A hotter-than-expected Jobs report to end the week is another reason investors shouldn't count on rate cuts anytime soon. 5 stocks we like better than Snowflake Equities lost ground this week as investors came to grips with interest rates that will stay higher for longer. That sentiment was confirmed by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, who continues to say that rate cuts are coming but remains non-committal as to when those cuts will occur. One culprit is oil. Crude prices pushed over $85 a barrel as tensions in the Middle East increased. Oil prices have a lagging effect on corporate earnings, which means corporations may reassess their earnings outlook when earnings season begins next week. If corporations start to signal lower profits, it could lead to a continued sell-off. On the other hand, the March Jobs report came in hotter than expected, with 303,000 jobs created in the month. Another surprise was that the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.8%. Get Snowflake alerts: Sign Up The market continues to surprise investors, and the MarketBeat team is committed to following the stocks and stories that move the markets. Here are some of the top stories from this week. Articles by Jea Yu One way to profit from the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) wave is to look at the infrastructure needed to make AI applications possible. One of those areas is data centers. This week, Jea Yu looked at two data storage device makers that are seeing surging demand that shows no sign of slowing down. Focusing on AI is what investors in Snowflake Inc. NASDAQ: SNOW want to see after the company issued soft guidance in its most recent quarter. However, Yu explains why Snowflake's new CEO, who comes over from Alphabet Inc. NASDAQ: GOOGL, looks to be the right candidate to lead the company into its AI era. And the new CEO recently increased his stake in the company to the tune of $5 million. Yu also wrote about the surge in Viking Therapeutics Inc. NASDAQ: VKTX over positive news on the company's GLP-1 pill. The company's candidate, which is in clinical trials, is showing comparable weight loss benefits with less severe and more tolerable side effects, which are a key obstacle with currently available GLP-1 treatments. Articles by Thomas Hughes In news that may be summarized as "another one bites the dust," electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Canoo Inc. NASDAQ: GOEV issued a going concern notice. The company is short on cash and is finding it hard to raise more capital in a higher interest rate market. Thomas Hughes breaks down Canoo's situation and offers up a different EV company for investors still interested in Canoo's commercial vehicle niche. As earnings season begins, technology stocks are still a popular choice for investors. And, because of some repricing, several stocks are trading at much better valuations. With that in mind, Hughes highlights five tech stocks that investors should consider before the earnings season kicks off. For investors looking to take some risk off the table, Hughes was looking at five cheap dividend stocks. This doesn't just mean the stocks are affordable; they're also likely to give investors a chance for outsized stock price gains in addition to a growing dividend. Articles by Sam Quirke Every now and then, quality stocks make downward moves that are hard to explain. Sam Quirke explains why that's been the case with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. NASDAQ: AMD. After a strong first quarter, the stock fell sharply and diverged from its sector and the broader market. However, analysts are still bullish on AMD stock, which could set the stage for a massive comeback rally. Among beauty stocks, Estee Lauder Companies Inc. NYSE: EL has been left behind competitors such as Ulta Beauty Inc. NASDAQ: ULTA. EL stock is down 70% from its 2022 highs. However, the stock has not only shown signs of a bottom but is getting numerous analyst upgrades that may move the stock higher. If you're a contrarian trader, Quirke has some stocks with a high relative strength indicator (RSI) that may be worth considering. While many investors see an RSI over 70 as a reason to sell, Quirke highlights three high RSI stocks that still give investors reason to believe they may go higher. Articles by Chris Markoch One of the week's major stories was the news that Tesla Inc. NASDAQ: TSLA missed analysts' expectations for deliveries in the first quarter by a wide margin. Chris Markoch explains why the miss continues to emphasize the company's weakness in China and soft demand for EVs in the United States. The bottom line is that unless the company delivers a surprise in its earnings report, TSLA stock may fall further. Articles by Ryan Hasson Sometimes, the best offense is a good defense. In investing terms, that means using existing economic conditions to buy stocks in defensive sectors. Ryan Hasson points investors to an ongoing rotation into defensive sectors. This is causing institutional investors to buy shares of the four oversold large cap stocks that Hasson analyzes. Another way you can play defense in this market is with gold. The yellow metal is one of the best-performing asset classes in 2024 and will likely continue to outperform. That's why Hasson is analyzing five mining stocks that give investors a way to invest in the strength of gold without the concerns of owning the physical metal. However, there are also times when you have to invest in the economy that exists, not the economy you think should exist. As Hasson writes, consumer spending is on the rise, and that's why investors should consider buying shares of the Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR ETF NYSE: XLY to gain exposure to the top names without picking individual stocks. Articles by Gabriel Osorio-Mazilli Gabriel Osorio-Mazilli was also writing about consumer discretionary stocks. Except in this case, he was naming three specific names to buy as consumer sentiment is at its highest level since 2001. Energy stocks have been a big winner as oil prices are surging. However, Osorio-Mazilli reminds investors why they shouldn't forget about the natural gas market. And particularly, the underrated natural gas stock that institutions are making a heavy buy. And, as per its custom, bank stocks will be the first to report when earnings season starts next week. As has been the case for over a year, investors will be paying close attention to the commercial banking sector. Osorio-Mazilli offers up two commercial bank stocks that analysts love heading into earnings season. Before you consider Snowflake, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Snowflake wasn't on the list. While Snowflake currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
Linwei Ding was a Google software engineer. He was also a prolific thief of trade secrets, say prosecutors. 2024-04-06 11:00:00+00:00 - Though he lived in Silicon Valley, Linwei Ding spent months at a time in his native China, according to court papers. Nothing unusual about that — except that he was supposed to be working full time as a software engineer in Google’s San Francisco-area offices. Court records say he had others badge him into Google buildings, making it appear as if he were coming to work. In fact, prosecutors say, he was marketing himself to Chinese companies as an expert in artificial intelligence — while stealing 500 files containing some of Google’s most important AI secrets. Ding, whose home was searched by the FBI days before prosecutors say he was to board a one-way flight to China, was arrested in March and is now facing federal felony charges. He has pleaded not guilty. His case illustrates what American officials say is an ongoing nightmare for U.S. economic and national security: Some of America’s most prominent tech firms have had their virtual pockets picked by Chinese corporate spies and intelligence agencies. Days after the Ding case was announced, prosecutors charged the owners of a Chinese company with conspiring to steal battery secrets from Tesla. This week, a government cybersecurity board ripped Microsoft for an “inadequate security culture” and a “cascade … of avoidable errors” that allowed Chinese intelligence hackers to compromise the company’s email software and gain access to the accounts of the U.S. commerce secretary. In February, the Justice Department charged a Chinese engineer with stealing missile-tracking technology from a company owned by aerospace giant Boeing. Last year, prosecutors accused a Chinese national of stealing Apple’s self-driving car technology and fleeing to China. “China’s multipronged assault on our national and economic security make it the defining threat of our generation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress recently. “Today, and literally every day, they’re actively attacking our economic security — engaging in wholesale theft of our innovation and our personal and corporate data.” It’s been happening for years, but experts say neither the government nor U.S. corporations have been able to mount a coherent response. China denies that it steals intellectual property. In a statement, Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said, "The Chinese government has never participated in or supported anyone in any form in stealing commercial secrets. We ask the U.S. side to handle the case without bias and in accordance with the law and protect the lawful rights and interests of Chinese citizens." Dmitri Alperovitch, who co-founded the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, was among the first to publicize state-sponsored Chinese corporate espionage back in 2011. Soon, top U.S. intelligence officials were calling it “the biggest transfer of wealth in history.” “China has engaged in systematic theft of America’s economic and national security treasures for decades,” Alperovitch, author of “World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the 21st Century,” told NBC News. “The pillaging has undermined our nation’s economic growth and devastated entire industries.” Alperovitch and other experts say the Chinese campaign has been hugely successful in boosting that country’s economic and military prowess even as it has cost jobs and decimated whole business sectors in the U.S. and Europe, including the solar panel industry. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has estimated the cost of Chinese intellectual property theft at $600 billion a year. The Google case illustrates why the damage from trade secret theft is not widely understood by the public. It wasn’t front page news when Attorney General Merrick Garland announced it last month, and initially Google downplayed its impact. “We have strict safeguards to prevent the theft of our confidential commercial information and trade secrets. After an investigation, we found that this employee stole numerous documents, and we quickly referred the case to law enforcement,” company spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement. “We are grateful to the FBI for helping protect our information and will continue cooperating with them closely.” Ding now faces 10 years in prison on theft charges. But a person familiar with the case said it’s unknown whether Ding distributed the stolen material to his partners in China — in other words, it’s not clear the information was protected. Cornell computer science professor Bart Selman, an expert in artificial intelligence, said the stolen technology, as described in the indictment, was extremely significant, representing 10 to 15 years of work by Google scientists. The technology Ding allegedly stole involves the building blocks of Google’s advanced supercomputing data centers that fuel the remarkably humanlike answers consumers see when they ask questions of ChatGPT. “It’s a very significant loss, and indeed, it’s very concerning,” Selman said. “And I think it’s not just concerning for a single company. The AI software and AI training has very big national security components. So it’s even of relevance to national security.” Selman said the stolen secrets related to both software and hardware, including information about advanced computer chips that the U.S. government has worked hard to keep out of Chinese hands. “That’s one of the most concerning aspects — that this sort of undercuts the U.S. efforts to [prevent] China being able to develop this technology,” he said. “This will give them new capabilities and insights that were developed by Google over the last 10 years at least, to develop these very advanced chips for training AI models.” The indictment said Google had robust network security, including a system designed to monitor large outflows of data. But Ding circumvented that by allegedly copying data from Google source files into the Apple Notes application on his Google-issued MacBook laptop, converting the Apple Notes into PDF files, and uploading them from the Google network into a separate account. Google did not have systems in place to monitor the travel of employees working on sensitive technology, a person familiar with the matter said. That’s a problem, said Frank Figliuzzi, formerly the FBI’s assistant director for counterintelligence and now an NBC News contributor. He said tech companies need to step up their security against so-called insider threats. “No question there was a ball dropped here,” he said. “But this is something I see commonly in security failures across the board. Number one, companies have to get much better at identifying what is truly a crown jewel in their company. Number two, identify the employees in your company who have access to those crown jewels. Number three, monitor those employees and the crown jewel data to ensure that bad things aren’t happening. So when that crown jewel employee who has access is traveling abroad, you need to know it.” While the indictment does not allege any links between Ding and the Chinese government, Figliuzzi said that doesn’t really matter, given Chinese government policies. “There is indeed an actual strategy, a five-year plan that China publishes, putting its citizens on alert that we need the following items this year, and for the next five years, and we’ll do everything we can to get our hands on it,” he said. It’s a challenge for an American company to secure against that threat, Figliuzzi added, saying “it’s against the law for a Chinese national to refuse to cooperate with their intelligence services.”And if a Chinese national were to take protected information of their own accord, patent it in China and open their own business with it, “good luck challenging that in court in China,” he said. “It rarely if ever succeeds.” Last October, Wray and representatives from the other four countries in the so-called Five Eyes intelligence partnership — Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand — met in Silicon Valley to call attention to Chinese theft of trade secrets. “The Chinese government is engaged in the most sustained, scaled and sophisticated theft of intellectual property and expertise in human history,” said Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization. More needs to be done, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NBC News. “We’ve got to be using every tool at our disposal to protect American business and innovation so that China can’t exploit the openness of our society and our economy to their advantage,” Warner said, “and we need to do more to raise the cost to China of this behavior.”
The solar eclipse could deliver a $6 billion economic boom: "The whole community is sold out" 2024-04-06 10:56:00+00:00 - Steve Wright said he first heard about the total eclipse on April 8 four years ago, when a visitor booked the first room for the event at Vermont's Jay Peak Resort. Wright, the resort's general manager, said he soon started hearing rumblings from other ski areas. "They said, 'The hype is real'," he recalled, adding that he's never seen anything quite like the visitor excitement over the eclipse. That early prediction turned out to be prescient, with Wright noting that all of Jay Peak's 900 rooms have been fully booked for April 7 — at a cost of about $500 per night — for a year and a half. By comparison, the resort had roughly 80 bookings on the same day last year. Roughly 800 rooms are booked for April 8, the day of the eclipse. Indeed, tourists are getting into the spirit of the rare celestial event, a major boon for local businesses across the eclipse's direct path. One couple is getting married at the 4,000 summit of Jay Peak during the eclipse, while the resort will have a Pink Floyd cover band paying "The Dark Side of the Moon" at the base. And with more than a foot of snow forecast to arrive just ahead of the eclipse, skiers are also likely to hit the slopes as the moon and the sun align. Wright said he expects his resort to book as much revenue over the April 5-8 weekend as it typically would during the entire month of April. "It has been well advertised that we're at the end of the path of totality and we will have the best look at the eclipse, at over three and a half minutes," he told CBS MoneyWatch, adding the event is giving a boost not just to Jay Peak, but to the entire region, a rural part of Vermont that is known for scenic farms and ski areas. "The whole community is sold out." The total solar eclipse isn't just throwing shade across the dozen states in line for the astronomical event — it's also shining an economic bonanza on states from Texas to Vermont. The eclipse could bring a financial boost of as much as $6 billion, thanks to increased spending on hotels, restaurants and travel, according to an estimate from the Perryman Group, an economic analysis firm. "It is amazing how much this has captured the imagination," Ray Perryman, an economist and CEO of the Perryman Group, told CBS MoneyWatch. "It'll be concentrated in a short period of time, but it does give these cities an opportunity to show themselves off, including the smaller cities." The eclipse is likely to jolt local economies partly because of its timing, Perryman noted. Americans have returned to their pre-pandemic travel habits, while the event is occurring in spring, when people are more likely to want to travel than in winter. "There's also the fact that we won't have another eclipse like this for many years," he said. Tthe next total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. won't occur until 2045, according to NASA. "It's not only a scientific phenomenon, but an emotional one as well," Dan Schneiderman, the eclipse partnership coordinator at the Rochester Museum of Science, told CBS News. Bill Nye and Dark Side Stout April 8 will bring viewing parties across cities both large and small that lie in the eclipse's path. Events range from the Eclipse-O-Rama 2024 with science expert Bill Nye in Fredericksburg, Texas, at $325 per ticket, to a NASA-sponsored gathering at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (a more budget-conscious $20 per ticket.) Companies also are issuing special commemorative items to draw people to their viewing parties, such as Rohrback Brewing Co. in Rochester, New York (a city in the path of the totality), which is making the Rohrbach Totality Black Lager. Switchback Brewery in Burlington, Vermont — another city that will witness the totality — will release Dark Side Stout for attendees at its April 8 event. "It's a great opportunity to market our city, and as a place where people might want to live one day," Malik Evans, the mayor of Rochester, New York, a Rust Belt city whose fortunes have drifted as once powerful manufacturing companies like Xerox and Eastman Kodak declined, told CBS News. As of April 7, 2024, over half of the listings on Airbnb are already booked in cities directly in the eclipse's path. AirDNA Texas is forecast to enjoy the biggest economic gains at about $1.4 billion, according to Perryman's estimates. He said that's partly due to Texas' large population and to the number of big cities, like Austin and Dallas, that are in the path of the totality. Vermont, whose population of 650,000 makes it the second-smallest state in the nation, is expecting as many as 200,000 people to come to the state to witness the eclipse, CBS Boston reported. Its economic boost could reach $230 million, one of the smaller financial impacts for the states in the path of the eclipse, Perryman projected. Still, it's a significant bump for a state with annual GDP of about $43 billion. How much do solar eclipse glasses cost? Americans are also spending on gear to properly watch the eclipse because gazing at the event without eye protection can permanently damage your vision. Sunglasses don't offer enough shielding to prevent harm to your eyes, either. Instead, people should buy solar eclipse glasses that have been approved by the American Astronomical Society and adhere to the ISO 12312-2 standard. A six-pack of glasses with this standard can be found at Amazon for about $16, or less than $3 a pair. But consumers can also pick up eclipse glasses as promotions at various retailers. For instance, Sonic Drive-In is now selling a Blackout Slush Float, with each purchase of the celestial-inspired drink coming with a free pair of eclipse viewing glasses. Eyeglass company Warby Parker is also giving away eclipse-viewing glasses through April 8. Even though the totality itself will only last a few minutes on April 8, businesses could get a boost all weekend, Perryman noted. "It's almost a like a concert that causes people to come into town, but they might do other things and see other things," he noted. "I'm intrigued by the benefit for the small towns."
Hotel prices soar as tourists flock to see solar eclipse 2024-04-06 09:56:00+00:00 - Susan Hochman, who for seven years has been planning to travel to see the solar eclipse on April 8, will be shelling out hundreds of dollars for a one-night stay at a modest hotel room in Saranac Lake, New York, which is in the path of the so-called totality. She'll be spending $650 to spend one night at a Best Western hotel, where room rates are as low as $99 during less busy periods, according to hotel staff. "I thought that was crazy," the New York City resident said. "I almost died at the $650 rate the Best Western quoted, but at least I can just stay there the one night that I need." Hochman booked her accommodations in October of last year. Still, she wishes she had made reservations far earlier. "As much as I had given it forethought, I didn't plan as much in advance as I should have," she said. She called the inflated lodging prices "kooky crazy." Initially, Hochman had planned to stay at the nearby Saranac Waterfront Lodge, a luxury resort on the lake, with friends. But at $700 a night, with a two-night minimum, the hotel was out of her budget. The cost for a room with two queen beds and a view of the lake? $2,400. The room rate drops to $1,100 on April 8 on the day of the eclipse, according to the hotel, which added that guests started booking rooms there a year ago. By contrast, the following night, April 9, the same room costs $131, while on April 15 room rates drop to $111. The Hampton Inn in Carbondale, Illinois, also situated in the solar eclipse's path, doesn't have any rooms available on either April 7 or 8. "We've been sold out for months now," the hotel said. A revenue management team sets the hotel's rates, which a spokesperson said "are much higher than usual" for the April event. $1 billion boost Eclipse-related tourism could pump as much as $1 billion into local economies. All along the roughly 115-mile-wide stretch of land from Texas to Maine, from where the moon's full blocking of the sun will be momentarily visible, towns are expecting a spike in business as hordes of sky-gazing tourists spend on everything from lodging and dining to souvenirs. Other types of accommodations, like homes on Airbnb, are also in high demand. There has been a 1,000% increase in searches for stays along the path of totality, according to the home-sharing platform. As of April 7, 2024, over half of the listings on Airbnb are already booked in cities directly in the eclipse's path. AirDNA Vacasa, another vacation rental management company, told CBS MoneyWatch that tourists appear most eager to watch the eclipse from the state of Texas, based on searches for homes on its site. Vermont is the second most popular destination, followed by Maine. Average daily rates for homes in Burlington, Vermont, are $506. In Dallas, they're $375. Airline ticket prices are up, too. The average flight price to Dallas-Fort Worth, landing on April 7, is $1,900, according to travel site Hopper. For last-minute travelers eager to see the eclipse, Hopper lead economist Hayley Berg offered advice for saving money. "Consider staying at hotels outside of the path of totality and driving into the path in the afternoon on Monday," she told CBS News. "That way you'll pay a lower rate but can still experience the eclipse." Kayak, another travel platform, has launched a tool that lets people search for the lowest-cost hotel destinations on the eclipse's path of totality. According to Kayak, hotels are cheapest, on average, in Montreal, Canada, which is also a path city. The best rental car deals on average can also be found in Montreal.
Original Superman comic from 1938 sells for $6 million at auction 2024-04-05 23:29:00+00:00 - An original print edition of the comic book that introduced Superman sold at auction this week for a record-breaking $6 million. The sale happened on Thursday, kicking off a four-day rare comic book auction organized by Texas-based Heritage Auction. The auction house described the rare find, Action Comics No. 1, published in June 1938, as one of the finest copies in the world of the prized issue. As is customary with most auction houses, Heritage did not disclose the seller or buyer. The most expensive comic book in the world 🌎 https://t.co/HWCpQRG1x3 pic.twitter.com/MO8kcuoPul — Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) April 4, 2024 The $6 million sale surpasses the previous record of Superman #1 that sold privately in 2022 for $5.3 million. "Thursday was a historic day for a historic comic book, and we expected no less," Heritage Vice President Barry Sandoval told Barrons. "The first session of this four-day event will surpass $15 million — and we haven't touched the comic art that begins Friday, with numerous pieces of significance forthcoming. Maybe there is more history still to be made." Million-dollar sales of original super hero comic books have become more common in recent history, with a copy of Captain America's first issue selling for $3.1 million in 2022, and the first ever Marvel comic selling for $1.2 million in 2019. In 2021, Heritage also auctioned a high quality copy of Batman #1 for $2.2 million. Devout superhero fans consider Action Comics No. 1 as one of the rarest and most influential comics ever printed — one that launched perhaps the most well-known superhero in pop culture. In it, a newborn baby boy is nestled into a space capsule by his father who then sets the vessel's destination to Earth. Just moments after the baby is launched into space, his home planet of Krypton erupts violently, killing all of its inhabitants. The baby's capsule crash lands on Earth and a motorist driving by happens to notice it. The early story that later brought us Clark Kent and Superman enjoyed intense popularity between 1938 and 1956, a time frame comic book experts refer to as the Golden Age. "Without Superman and Action Comics No. 1, who knows whether there ever would have been a Golden Age of comics — or if the medium would have become what it is today," Sandoval said in a statement Thursday before the sale. Superman has been the central figure in thousands more comic books, as well as television shows, merchandise, cartoon series and movies. Actors George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, Henry Cavill, and Tyler Hoechlin have portrayed the Man of Steel either on TV or in film. David Corenswet is set to take the Superman mantle in James Gunn's upcoming film "Superman Legacy" in 2025. Only 200,000 copies of Action Comics No. 1 were printed in 1938 and there's likely only 100 copies of them in existence today, according to Certified Guaranty Company, the Florida-based comic book grading service. Of those 100 surviving copies, 78 are in good enough condition to be sold or auctioned, according to CGC.
Trump Media shares slide 12% to end second week of trading 2024-04-05 22:18:00+00:00 - What to know about Trump Media's stock market debut What to know about Trump Media's Nasdaq debut What to know about Trump Media's Nasdaq debut Donald Trump's media business continued its rocky start as a public company, with shares in Trump Media & Technology Group closing at a new low since listing on the Nasdaq exchange late last month. The stock — which trades under the ticker symbol "DJT," the former president's initials — on Friday fell $5.56, or 12%, to close at $40.59 — the company's lowest level since its March 26 debut. For the week, Trump Media shares slid more than 32%. The company, which operates Trump's Truth Social platform, has lost roughly $4 billion in market value over that stretch. Although Trump Media shares initially soared to a high of $79.38 on March 26, Wall Street analysts have questioned the company's financial prospects, saying it is overvalued and comparing it to "meme" stocks like GameStop. "We are excited to be operating as a public company and to have secured access to capital markets," a Trump Media spokesperson said in an email. "Closing out the 2023 financials related to the merger, Truth Social today has no debt and over $200 million in the bank, opening numerous possibilities for expanding and enhancing our platform," the spokesperson said. "We intend to take full advantage of these opportunities to make Truth Social the quintessential free-speech platform for the American people." For 2023, Trump Media posted a loss of $58 million on revenue of $4.1 million. In a regulatory filing, the company also disclosed that its auditor had raised concerns about its ability to continue operating. That warning reflects the company's current financial position, meaning it could grow and record profits in future quarters. Despite Trump Media's challenges, its stock has soared since it traded under its previous name, Digital World Acquisition Corp., a shell company Trump Media merged with earlier this year. Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes this week expressed confidence in the company's stability and growth potential, noting it "has no debt and over $200 million in the bank." Donald Trump owns 57% of Trump Media shares, valuing his stake at $3.3 billion.
Over 8 million bags of Tide Pods, other detergents recalled 2024-04-05 22:00:00+00:00 - Tide Pod maker Procter and Gamble is recalling more than 8 million bags of laundry detergent because the exterior packaging could break, making it easier for people to accidentally ingest their contents — individual pods. The recall covers 8.2 million packages of Tide Pods, Gain Flings, Ace Pods and Ariel Pods, all types of liquid laundry detergent packet products, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recall notice. The detergent is packaged in individual flexible film bags that if improperly accessed, can pose a risk of injury, particularly to children, if the packs' contents are ingested. Exposure to the pods' contents can also cause skin or eye injuries. The problematic outer bags, which are prone to ripping near their zipper tracks, were manufactured between September 2023 and February 2024 and include 17 different varieties, in different sizes. Procter and Gamble is offering consumers full refunds on lot numbers listed on its website. No injuries have been reported, although there have been four reports of children in the U.S. accessing the liquid laundry packets. Three children ingested the packets' contents, though it's unclear if the packets were among the recalled lots. The detergent pods are sold at major grocery chains across the U.S., including Target, Walmart and more as well as online at Amazon.com on other websites. A small bag with 12 pods costs $5; four bags with 39 pods each cost $30.
8 men allegedly ran a beer heist ring that stole Corona and Modelo worth hundreds of thousands 2024-04-05 19:32:00+00:00 - Brewery creates special beer to celebrate solar eclipse Brewery creates special beer to celebrate solar eclipse 00:58 Eight men allegedly operated a beer heist ring that swiped cases of Corona and Modelo Especial valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars from distribution centers and rail cars in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. Seven of the men were arrested on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York. The man who prosecutors believe was the ringleader, Jose Cesari, turned himself in to federal authorities on Thursday after being at large, a spokesman confirmed with CBS MoneyWatch. Between July 2022 and March 2024, the men allegedly carried out dozens of heists, waiting until night to cut holes in the fences of distribution facilities or to snip the locks off rail cars to gain access to pallets of beer, according to an unsealed indictment. They then allegedly used a moving truck to transport the stolen beer to the Bronx, where it was inspected and then sold. "Train heists harken back to the days of the Wild West and gunslingers riding horses, stealing loot from rail cars," FBI special agent in Charge James E. Dennehy said in the statement. "The romanticized image has nothing to do with the modern-day criminals we allege took part in a theft ring in New Jersey, New York, and beyond that targeted railyards and beverage distribution centers." The arrested men — Kemar Bonitto, Justin Bruno, Miguel Cintron, Antonio Gonzalez, Luis Izquierdo, Wakiem Johnson and Deylin Martinez-Guerrero — were paid hundreds of dollars each night for helping Cesari steal alcohol valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, prosecutors allege. Cesari, who was allegedly present at all the robberies, often used a police scanner to help keep a watch for authorities, prosecutors claim. Cesari, who made posts on Instagram trying to recruit others to join the ring, also allegedly robbed a railroad car full of beer at gunpoint in Queens, New York, last April, prosecutors claim. "That dangerous and disruptive conduct — sometimes allegedly accompanied by the threat of violence — has left several beverage distribution and railroad companies ailing," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on Wednesday. If convicted, the men, whose ages range from 27 to 40, face between five and 20 years in prison. Corona, a pale lager owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, began at a brewery in Mexico City in 1922. It's now sold in 180 countries and is one of the top selling beers in the U.S. Modelo Especial, a pilsner-style lager that began nearly 100 years ago in Mexico, was bought by Constellation Brands from Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2013. Sales of Modelo spiked last summer when sales of top-selling beer Bud Light plummeted amid a social media controversy with trans rights activist Dylan Mulvaney. For a brief period last year, Modelo became the nation's top selling beer brand.
Beazer Homes USA is an Overlooked Opportunity in Housing 2024-04-05 17:03:00+00:00 - Key Points Beazer Homes has undergone a successful turnaround, demonstrating improved profitability and strategic positioning for future growth. Despite its improving fundamentals, Beazer Homes trades at a significant discount compared to peers, creating a potential value opportunity. Catalysts like debt reduction, growth markets, interest rates, and pent-up housing demand could fuel further recovery and share price appreciation for Beazer Homes. 5 stocks we like better than Beazer Homes USA The homebuilding industry, which is part of the construction sector, is known for its cyclical nature, with companies experiencing dramatic rises and falls in tandem with the housing market. Within this volatile sector, Beazer Homes USA’s NYSE: BZH story stands out as a compelling example of a company that has gone from near collapse to a potential growth stock waiting to be recognized by investors. After a decade of lagging performance following the 2007-2009 housing crisis, Beazer has staged a remarkable turnaround. The company has proven that it can operate profitably and effectively manage debt levels, and it is now strategically positioned for significant growth. However, Beazer's stock price continues to be heavily discounted compared to its peers, potentially presenting a unique investment opportunity for those interested in turnaround stories. Get Beazer Homes USA alerts: Sign Up Beazer's Journey: From the Brink to Solid Ground To appreciate Beazer's current position, it's essential to understand its struggles in the aftermath of the Great Recession. While most homebuilders recovered quickly from the crisis, Beazer continued to lag. From 2015 to 2020, the company's revenues remained mostly flat while peers surged ahead. Facing this challenging environment, Beazer's management made a crucial pivot. Instead of chasing revenue growth at the expense of profitability, they focused on improving profit margins and reducing the company's debt burden. This disciplined strategy has paid off. Beazer's profit margins have expanded significantly, approaching those of its peers. The company's debt-to-equity ratio has steadily declined, reaching a level that no longer restricts its ability to grow. Additionally, Beazer has strategically increased its land holdings and community count, which are key indicators of future revenue growth potential. Beazer Homes Today: A Competitor on the Rise Beazer Homes has entered a new phase of growth where it's positioned to compete effectively with its peers. A comparison with other publicly traded homebuilders reveals that Beazer trades at a significant discount. Its price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is roughly half that of the peer average. This valuation gap seems unjustified, considering Beazer's improving fundamentals. Analysts seem to recognize Beazer's turnaround, with projections suggesting that the company's revenue growth will exceed the industry average in the coming year. Beazer Homes has several key catalysts working in its favor that could propel its continued recovery and lead to significant share price appreciation. Beazer's focus on debt reduction translates directly into improved profitability. As the company continues to pay down debt, its interest expenses will decrease, leading to higher net income for shareholders. This improved financial health will also give Beazer greater flexibility for future growth initiatives. Beazer's operations are concentrated in some of the fastest-growing states in the U.S., including Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Nevada. These regions experience robust population growth and strong housing demand, creating a favorable environment for the company to expand its market share and increase revenues. While current high-interest rates present a challenge to the housing market, the Federal Reserve's indications of future interest rate cuts offer a promising outlook for Beazer and other homebuilders. Lower mortgage rates should boost affordability for prospective homebuyers, potentially increasing demand for new homes. This trend could provide a significant tailwind to Beazer's sales and growth trajectory. Research highlights a substantial backlog of potential homebuyers who have delayed purchasing due to economic factors or limited housing inventory. As economic conditions improve and the supply of available homes increases, this pent-up demand is expected to materialize. The surge in potential buyers would be highly beneficial for new homebuilders like Beazer. Beazer's Management: A Guiding Hand on the Comeback Trail Beazer's turnaround success can be partly attributed to its experienced management team. The company's executives have demonstrated a commitment to improving profitability and positioning Beazer for sustainable growth. Their recent commentary on the company's outlook suggests confidence in continued improvement as demand and economic factors align. Considering the Risks Every investment carries risks, and Beazer is no exception. The most significant risk to Beazer's growth trajectory is a severe recession. A deep downturn in the economy could derail the housing market recovery, negatively impacting the company's sales and profitability. Another factor to consider is the complex relationship between interest rates and the housing market. Rising interest rates tend to dampen demand for existing homes, as many potential buyers may be unable to afford higher mortgage payments. However, declining interest rates are generally seen as a boon for the new home market, as lower mortgage rates boost affordability. Valuation and the Investment Case Beazer Home’s analyst community project the company will earn $4.50 per share or more in fiscal 2024. The company's recent share price implies a P/E ratio of about 7, making Beazer a highly compelling value proposition compared to its peers. This valuation, along with Beazer's strong turnaround, positions it as an attractive investment opportunity for investors who understand the company's trajectory and are willing to take on a moderate level of risk in exchange for the potential of future returns. With its compelling turnaround story and undervaluation, Beazer Homes may appeal to investors who are comfortable with turnaround situations and willing to accept some risk in exchange for the potential of above-average returns. The company isn't without risk, as any downturn in the housing market could hinder its growth trajectory. Nevertheless, the company's strategic positioning, improved fundamentals, and strong management team suggest that Beazer may be poised for further recovery and share price appreciation. Before you consider Beazer Homes USA, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Beazer Homes USA wasn't on the list. While Beazer Homes USA currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here
5 Stocks in the Current Bull Market with Upside to Come 2024-04-05 14:14:00+00:00 - Key Points Bull markets can often last for years, sometimes resulting in speculative bubbles where valuations get too far ahead of profits. New all-time highs, earnings growth, optimistic investors and expanding economies are a few common bull market characteristics. Bull markets can often last for years, sometimes resulting in speculative bubbles where valuations get too far ahead of profits. 5 stocks we like better than Amazon.com The S&P 500 was up more than 10% in the first 3 months of 2024, soaring to new all-time highs on the back of a recovering economy and artificial intelligence excitement. With a new bull market following 2022’s lengthy decline, investor and consumer sentiment is trending upward. With interest rate cuts on the horizon but the specter of inflation still looming, how should investors approach this market? Bull markets are periods where stock price gains create an aura of investor exuberance. Certain sectors explode, investors take on more risk, and financial media begins to slant positively as market indices make new highs. Get Amazon.com alerts: Sign Up When trading during a bull market, risk-taking is often rewarded as certain growth-focused sectors outperform value and dividend stocks. In this article, we’ll explain how bull markets are formed and which sectors to keep an eye on when stock prices start ascending. Introduction to Bull Markets A new bull market is crowned when major market indices expand 20% or more. While a 20% gain doesn’t always result in new all-time highs, this level triggers a new optimistic atmosphere among investors. Earnings are growing, the economy is (usually) thriving, and investors have confidence that strong performance will continue. Bull markets don’t affect every sector equally, however. When investor sentiment is high, risk-seeking follows, and sectors with the most potential tend to attract the most capital. In the last three bull markets, tech stocks have ruled thanks to advances in innovation like the internet and artificial intelligence. Value sectors like utilities and consumer staples usually underperform tech, manufacturing, and finance. Investing in a bull market still requires some strategy, such as sector rotation and momentum trading. Identifying Bull Market Stocks Here are a few characteristics to look for when adding bull market stocks to your portfolio. Remember to always perform due diligence on any stock before investing to ensure it aligns with your goals. Strong Earnings Valuations can often become excessive during bull markets, so look for companies that can support a lofty valuation with earnings growth. Are earnings consistently coming in above analyst expectations? Are profit and revenue growth rates continuing to expand? Investors can get overly excited during bull runs, but revenue and profit are usually still rewarded. Growth-oriented Sector When sentiment is high, investors usually aren’t looking for capital protection or dividend income. They want growth, which is why certain sectors often outperform others during market expansions. For example, utilities are heavily regulated and have low volatility, which makes them attractive in bear markets but unappealing in bull markets. On the other hand, tech and retail are sectors where stock prices can appreciate quickly, making them a target of bullish investors. Fundamentally and Technically Sound Finally, due diligence should always include fundamental or technical analysis. Investors can use fundamental factors like profit margins, revenue growth, cost of goods or services and debt-to-income rates to check the health of their stocks. From a short-term perspective, technical factors like support, resistance and moving averages can help investors locate ideal entry and exit points for trades. Top Bull Market Stocks to Keep an Eye On Semiconductor stocks are the hot items during the current bull market, but plenty of other sectors also show promise. Here’s a list of 5 companies with the potential for more gains if the bull market keeps churning forward. Nvidia The poster child for the current AI revolution, Nvidia Corp. NASDAQ: NVDA is the semiconductor giant that creates the data centers responsible for powering AI and machine learning systems. NVDA shares have been up more than 100% since October 2023, and it has become one of the five largest companies in the world by market cap. Amazon Amazon Inc. NASDAQ: AMZN is the largest online retailer and a juggernaut in e-commerce, electronics, and web-based services. Its Amazon Prime program has over 200 million global subscribers, and the company now produces a wide range of tech, like FireTVs and Ring doorbell cameras. The stock has nearly doubled in the last 12 months. Costco Bulk items and $1.50 hot dogs still have a place in bull markets. Costco Wholesale Corp. NASDAQ: COST does the warehouse club business model better than anyone. The company reported a revenue miss for Q4 last year, which sent the stock down almost 4% in March but shares are still up over 45% over the last 12 months. Netflix If the streaming wars ended today, the king would be undisputed. Netflix Inc. NASDAQ: NFLX is the original streamer and still the most dominant player in the space, with more than 220 million worldwide customers. Despite a recent earnings miss, the stock is up a blistering 31% in the last three months. Disney Bull markets create enthusiastic investors, and consumers are apt to spend when sentiment is high. The Walt Disney Co NYSE: DIS benefits from experience-seeking consumers as theme park attendance rebounds closer to pre-COVID levels. Disney has beaten earnings expectations for 5 straight quarters and the stock is up 49% over the last 6 months. Diversification and Risk Management Bull markets often create FOMO (and therefore bull traps) as newer investors see gains produced by those who bought early and want a slice of the action. But just because stocks are ripping higher doesn’t mean ignoring your investment goals is okay. Sure, it’s tempting to put all your cash into NVIDIA or semiconductor stocks, but a well-balanced portfolio is the key to avoiding massive drawdowns when the bull market eventually sputters. Diversify your holdings across various sectors or asset classes and never put all your capital into a single security, no matter how promising the outlook. Investors who bought Zoom Communications Inc NASDAQ: ZM and PayPal Holdings Inc NASDAQ: PYPL at the height of the 2020 market rally are still underwater in those positions more than 3 years later. Future Trends and Considerations The future of this current bull market will be dictated by many factors: Fed rate cuts, inflation and economic data, earnings, investor sentiment, and the 2024 presidential election. While predicting the outcomes of all these events is impossible, there are some ways to monitor the market's health. Are investors starting to rotate into more conservative sectors like utilities? Is earnings growth slowing at the biggest winners like NVDA and NFLX? Is unemployment or layoffs starting to tick up? The answers here provide hints about how much strength bull markets have. Stay informed, but follow trends and don’t panic based on 1 specific data point. Conclusion Bull markets create a wave of investor exuberance as stocks reach new heights and more capital seeks to get in on the action. A bull market is a natural part of the market cycle, but so is a bear market, which often materializes more quickly and with more volatility. Taking on more risk in a bull market makes sense, but investors must still follow their guidelines for building a strong and diverse portfolio. Navigate Bull Market Trends with MarketBeat Looking for the best bull market stocks? MarketBeat will deliver investment news and analysis directly to your inbox. Click here to view our service levels and get started on your investment journey. However, always consult with an advisor before using any particular strategy or trade. Before you consider Amazon.com, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Amazon.com wasn't on the list. While Amazon.com currently has a "Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here