An expansive winter storm now impacting the area from Chicago to Washington, D.C., will engulf New England on Monday and last until Wednesday.
It is the same storm that dropped eight feet of snow on Mammoth Mountain in California Tuesday through Thursday.
Here in New England, we are in the coldest outbreak since probably January 2018, as the low temperature this morning was -25 degrees at Island Pond, Vermont. The low in Boston of 7 degrees is the third morning in a row in single digits. Ahead of this storm we have fading sunshine Sunday afternoon with a nice recovery back to the teens and 20s and some light wind.
TIMELINE: Track the 3-Day Winter Storm Approaching New England
With all this cold, we are going to see a strong storm centered close enough to Nantucket with wind coming in off the ocean, and with a water temperature of 41 degrees, there will be enough warmer air for a challenging snow/rain line.
There will be a ring around the moon Sunday night; the old saying "ring around the sun or moon, snow or rain soon" certainly will come true. Low temperatures overnight are again well below zero in northern New England to the teens in the 20s toward the South Coast.
Snow develops on the South Coast shortly after sunrise and slowly pushes to the north. It will not take long for snow to be accumulating at 1 to 3 inches per hour, even where a change to rain is expected, we may have to plow snow before the change. So in the first three or four hours of the storm, there will likely be more than 4 inches of snow -- that’s about how long it may snow before changing to rain from the coast of Connecticut to Cape Cod.
Snow arrives in the Boston area by mid-afternoon Monday, if not sooner. Near the mix line -- snow will not be as deep as inland -- this will be the most challenging and hardest hit area, due to heavy wet snow and powerful wind causing power outages tomorrow night.
It looks like the most powerful band of snow should last about 8 to 10 hours in any one location. In a normal storm we might say 8 to 10 inches in that amount of time, but there is such a strong gradient between the very cold high pressure system to the north and the relatively warm low pressure system to the south that snowfall of 8 to 10 hours may add up to more like 10 to 15 inches.
The band of snow will push out of southern New England early Tuesday and into northern New England and keep on going. There are actually two low pressure systems, maybe even three that are going to develop, and then redevelop and slowly move from Nantucket into the Gulf of Maine. So we will be constantly tweaking the forecast throughout the long duration event.
The worst of the wind is likely toward the high tide Monday night -- that’s when we will be gusting past 50 mph from the northeast. Coastal erosion and minor to moderate coastal flooding is likely. The high tide early Tuesday afternoon may not be as dramatic, but could come with some more issues. Precipitation should ease to light snow, perhaps some freezing drizzle or drizzle on Tuesday in southern New England as snow continues toward the Canadian border.
Wind will pick up from the north Tuesday night and any liquid precipitation will change back to snow, with deep puddles toward southeastern New England refreezing by Wednesday morning. Clouds and occasional light snow will likely persist through midday Wednesday.
Snowfall accumulation is likely 10 to 20 inches where it stays all snow, with some of the higher elevations coming in closer to 2 feet. There will also be some holes in the snow accumulation on the windward side of some of the mountains. In eastern Maine, snow likely changes to rain and then back to snow and ice, so that will keep accumulations down but it will still have a high impact.
We get a little rest on Thursday before a warm front brings a mix of rain and snow showers early Friday, then it’s windy and warmer with a chance of rain Friday into Saturday before turning dramatically colder again late next weekend and into the following week. It is a very busy First Alert 10-day forecast.
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News Falling temps and snow create danger for Philly's homeless - KYW Newsradio 1060
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Weeks after rehiring thousands of employees who were furloughed after Oct. 1, 2020, United is warning some 14,000 workers that their jobs are at risk when the second round of federal aid expires on March 30, 2021.
It was the same stipulation that airlines agreed to last year when the first round of stimulus, the CARES Act, was enacted and included a provision that employees could not be fired or have their pay cut. That ended after six months and on Oct. 1 airlines began laying off employees. United and American responded by cutting 30,000 workers combined.
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This time, the stimulus package approved in December gave airlines a three-month window.
“Despite ongoing efforts to distribute vaccines, customer demand has not changed much since we recalled those employees,” the airline said in a staff note Friday, which was seen by CNBC. “When the recalls began, United said most recalled employees would return to their previous status as a result of the fall furloughs around April 1.”
Companies are legally required to inform employees if their jobs are in jeopardy often two months in advance, although it does not necessarily mean these workers will ultimately lose their job.
Hawaiian Airlines also sent furlough notices to staff and said that it could cut up to 900 jobs when aid runs out.
Newly elected President Joe Biden is working on yet a third stimulus relief bill but it has not yet been presented to Congress. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents crews at United, Hawaiian and others, and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, American Airlines flight attendants’ union, both wrote to Biden and congressional leaders urging them to provide a third round of federal payroll aid for airlines that would maintain jobs until Sept. 30.
“Without immediate action on this, essential workers will again be pushed into incredible uncertainty with job loss and cost-cutting on the job that airlines will initiate in the coming days,” wrote AFA President Sara Nelson and APFA President Julie Hedrick.
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Roughly 14000 United Workers Reportedly in Danger of Losing Their Jobs - TravelPulse
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(Reuters) - Canada’s northern territories have achieved much higher COVID-19 vaccination rates than its more populous provinces despite geographic challenges in a sign that prioritizing vaccine rollout in indigenous and rural communities is paying off.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
Two government policies helped drive this early success. A robust outreach to indigenous communities sought to overcome mistrust arising from decades of ill treatment by the Canadian government. In addition, officials have shipped more doses per capita to the Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, home to many of Canada’s indigenous people, than to other provinces.
Other measures also contributed, including a lottery held in a small town in Nunavut for those who get vaccinated offering five cash awards of C$2000.
The three territories span almost 3.9 million square kilometers (1.5 million square miles), or 40% of Canada’s landmass. But the harsh terrain of the territories is home to just 125,000 people, the majority of whom are indigenous, many living in fly-in communities best reached via air.
Despite this, almost 17% of their populations have received at least the first dose of the two-dose vaccines, compared to the national figure of 2%, according to government data. All three territories said they are on track to have at least 75% of their adult populations vaccinated by April, compared to the September target the federal government has set for the rest of the country.
LONG OVERDUE
To combat vaccine hesitancy, Nunavut Health Minister Lorne Kusugak and the territory’s chief medical officer have been calling into local community radio stations to answer questions and calm fears in the days before a vaccine clinic’s arrival.
Kusugak said the way his government decided to overcome the hurdles is by going into communities.
“It could be a community of 100,000, I think this formula works anywhere,” Kusugak said.
Vaccinating the indigenous communities is important to help keep COVID-19 deaths in Canada under check because the risk of an outbreak in the remote areas is seen as high.
Dr. Brendan Hanley, Yukon’s chief medical officer, said the territories share common features - remote, small and largely indigenous populations dispersed over large areas with limited healthcare availability. Hanley called it “gratifying” that the provincial and federal governments recognized these factors.
Vaccine hesitancy is a global problem but mistrust of authorities has deep roots among these indigenous people, who represent 5% of Canada’s population and have experienced centuries of mistreatment and genocide at the hands of the Canadian government.
In addition, Canada’s indigenous people are more likely to experience homelessness or lack access to clean drinking water, making the social distancing and hand-washing recommended to fight the spread of COVID-19 difficult. Their life expectancy is 10 to 15 years less than non-indigenous Canadians, and they have almost double the rate of asthma and triple the rate of diabetes.
Recognition of these facts is long overdue, according to Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national organization representing Canada’s Inuit population, whose ancestral home covers much of the country’s north.
“Part of why we need to be prioritized is because of our health status - and that is a legacy of colonialism and racism,” Obed said.
The government’s prioritization of Canada’s indigenous population, Obed added, “shows that we are on a new path on reconciliation.”
Reporting by Moira Warburton in Vancouver; Editing by Will Dunham and Denny Thomas
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Northern territories, home to many of Canada's indigenous people, lead COVID-19 vaccine rollout - Reuters
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Some restaurants mean more to their local communities than just a breakfast special or ice cream on a hot summer day. We know this based on the response to online crowdfunding pages set up to help a place like Dave & Amy’s off Highland Road in White Lake.
The place opened in 2002 and may not make it to 2022, but owner Dave McManaman said a fundraiser gives him some hope.
Dave & Amy’s is a family diner. Nothing fancy, just good food, attentive service and a lot of regulars who love the atmosphere. At least they did when they could get inside.
While the diner can do takeout, it doesn’t pay the ever-mounting bills.
“My gas and electric bills are in the tens of thousands now,” McManaman said. “You could pay a little bit here, a little bit there, but you also have to live. Everyone’s calling me for money.”
To stay ahead of the bill collector, McManaman took a security job. He works the restaurant during the day but works 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. at his other job.
When he contemplated shutting down both his restaurants, a friend from grade school helped him to create a GoFundMe page to raise money.
“I couldn’t be more grateful from people I’ve known from school, people in the community, the people I serve,” McManaman said.
Dave & Amy’s isn’t the only one looking at crowdfunding. Ray’s Ice Cream, off Coolidge Highway in Royal Oak, is a generational business that’s been around for 60 years.
“A business really should be able to make it on its’ own,” said owner Tom Stevens.
He never envisioned needing help either, but the COVID pandemic has been unprecedented.
“I just had to put my ego aside or whatever and just, ‘Alright, I am not doing down without a fight,’ kind of thing,” Stevens said.
Ray’s Ice Cream -- started by Stevens’ grandfather -- found revival with nearly $75,000 donated from friends and fans. You can donate here.
Both McManaman and Stevens said GoFundMe pages have been life-saving, but they only begin to cover the debt they’ve taken on during the pandemic. They’re hopeful something resembling normal returns by summer in order to help them stay in business.
Sam Riley was an engaging, lineman-size man who ran a security business and protected people in Twin Cities inner-city neighborhoods for 35 years.
Riley, 63, died of cancer Jan. 12 at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale.
"Sam handled [dying] as he did most things," said Kristen Barstow, his partner of many years. "He took it into his own hands and dealt with it."
Riley, raised by his adoptive parent, Jesse Riley, graduated from Minneapolis North High School, attended the University of Minnesota and served four years in the Army National Guard. He was trained as a paratrooper, but Barstow said he didn't enjoy jumps.
His life's avocation became caring for others.
In the 1980s, Riley worked security and as a bodyguard. In 1990, he started his own security business and was hired as a contractor by Project for Pride in Living (PPL), a Minneapolis provider of affordable housing and job training, mostly in inner-city neighborhoods. Riley later joined PPL as its in-house security chief.
Then-CEO Joe Selvaggio knew he'd made the right decision when he saw Riley subdue a suspected drug dealer who was accosting people outside a PPL building, detaining him until police arrived.
Riley was called "the mayor" of E. Franklin Avenue when there was a lot more trouble and storefronts were vacant on that reviving, South Side commercial artery, Selvaggio said.
"He rarely had to get physical," Selvaggio said. "He was so respectful. He called everyone, whether a drug dealer or executive, sir or ma'am."
Riley was a powerful, spiritual man who loved plants. During downtime, he would wander through the PPL headquarters, chatting with workers and clients, as he "overwatered" the plants, an employee recalled.
"Sam brought a presence and sense of stability to tense situations over and over again in [PPL buildings]," a rental-housing manager said in a remembrance. "It wasn't intimidation. There was always compassion behind it. He made our staff and our residents feel they were safe … and cared about."
Riley was known, if he wasn't on an early-evening call, for idling in the PPL parking lot, blinking his headlights and bidding good night as workers walked to their cars and the bus stop.
Riley also served as a liaison to police.
"Sam practiced community safety, engaging with our residents, program participants and students in a trusted way," said PPL CEO Paul Williams. "He supported our staff … always with a smile and a personal word. He connected with folks. Cops appreciated his perspective."
Riley, who often worked six-day weeks, rarely brought job stress home.
"He was very disciplined," Barstow said. "He'd come home after a long day and might say something. But we'd sit down and watch a TV show about ancient history, or a movie, or play chess."
Riley changed lives by being a man who engaged people from every background and took the time to show he cared, said associates and family members.
In addition to Barstow, Riley is survived by six children, Alexandra, Tyrell, Samantha Isis, Samuel Amon Ra, Atlantis Ma-at and Sekhmet; a stepdaughter, Jackie, and 10 grandchildren.
A memorial service will be planned when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
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Sometimes, when you're leaving a job, you get an exit interview. What went right? What went wrong? Why did you ever think it was okay to microwave your leftover fish tacos in the office kitchenette? Well, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in wrapping up its four-year tenure under the prior presidential regime, decided to give itself an exit interview of sorts, releasing a document titled "NHTSA Chief Accomplishments, 2017-21." With 22 bullet points and about 1200 words, it's a bit much to go through line by line, but let's take a look at the highlights.
At the top of the list is "Improved Safety and Affordability." So did NHTSA introduce tougher safety standards or offer some kind of incentives to make cars more affordable? That's what it sounds like, but no. What they're claiming here is that the EPA's reduction in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards would result in lower car prices, thus prompting more people to replace their old (and probably less safe) cars with new ones.
This presumes that any R&D and production savings realized by a manufacturer will be passed on to the consumer, and that this savings will be pronounced enough to prompt (according to NHTSA) "three million additional car sales over the next decade." It also assumes that car companies, which have multi-year lead times, will entirely rejigger their long-term product planning from one presidential administration to the next. And that, given a choice, car buyers will choose less efficient vehicles with some kind of up-front savings, with the understanding that they'll pay more to fuel said vehicle over its useful life. Finally, the premise of a net public health benefit assumes that increased vehicle emissions make no difference to air quality. All righty! The bottom line is that the push toward electrification will eventually render CAFE standards moot, and like we said: that came from the EPA, not NHTSA.
Then there's a bunch of stuff about encouraging autonomous-car development (okay) and child safety in cars (like expanding the ad campaign about pediatric hyperthermia). Then: scary batteries! "In light of recent fires involving electric vehicles that destroyed vehicles and even homes, we launched the Battery Safety Initiative to research battery technologies and develop safety standards to reduce future risks." Here, for anyone interested, we will simply point out that when an electric car catches fire, it's news, and when 150 internal-combustion vehicles cars catch fire, it's an average Tuesday. That's according to a U.S. Fire Administration report on vehicle fires from 2014 to 2016, a period that included an estimated 171,500 highway vehicle fires. The report doesn't distinguish between EV fires and internal combustion, but it does say that, "flammable liquids and gases in general were, by far, the most deadly (67 percent of deaths)" item ignited. The Fire Administration's report also includes some specific examples of all the ways that cars can catch fire, including this very New York scenario:
May 2017: A vehicle was parked on a city block in New York, New York, and had not been driven for about a week. When the owner of the vehicle went to drive it, he noticed his engine was overheating and then abruptly caught fire. He exited the vehicle, opened the hood, and discovered two deceased baby rats on the ledge of the engine. Firefighters soon arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire. Further investigation by firefighters found additional rats in the rims of the vehicle’s tire.
Point being: what about the fire rats, NHTSA?
Moving on, there's a section pertaining to recalls. A few years ago, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation conducted an audit of NHTSA's recall procedures, prompted by the Takata airbag fiasco. The essential conclusion: "NHTSA’s process for monitoring for light-passenger-vehicle recalls lacks documentation and management controls, and does not ensure that remedies are reported completely and in a timely manner." Basically, NHTSA needed to put some teeth into its recall procedures. And they say that's what happened, with more than 1000 recalls in 2018 and more than 53 million vehicles recalled in 2019. "We also took necessary and appropriate steps to protect the integrity of the recall program, issuing more than $250 million in civil penalties, including the largest set of penalties in agency history, for failure to comply with regulatory requirements or for a lack of candor," says NHTSA's report.
So the Trump administration cracked down on corporate malfeasance for the benefit of consumers? Well, maybe! The key verb here, regarding penalties, is "issuing." Which is not the same as "collecting." By the time a case reaches the point where a fine is actually paid, it's recorded as a settlement, and a former NHTSA staffer who dealt with railway cases told us, "Settlements were usually pennies on the dollar compared to the original penalties." And over the past four years, settlements have totaled less than $15 million, almost all of which is accounted for by a single $13 million payment from Mercedes-Benz for recall-related shenanigans. So, regarding that $250 million, time will tell.
Further down, there's a whole section about COVID-19, which may prompt you to ask, "What's COVID got to do with driving?" Well, remember when people took to the empty roads to drive like absolute maniacs? Apparently, NHTSA took notice: "As the data began to indicate troubling trends in highway safety, we conducted research and prepared reports illustrating the rise of unsafe driving practices during the national health crisis, and began coordinating with our stakeholders to identify countermeasures." By "stakeholders" we assume they mean "cops," and by "countermeasures" we assume they mean "more cops." Either way, NHTSA is on to you, Cannonball idiots.
NHTSA also apparently leveraged its access to blood tests to try to expand data on COVID spread: "We used our own research tools to help address the national health crisis, repurposing an existing blood study testing for drugs and alcohol among fatal or near-fatal crash victims, to assist NIH in assessing scope and nature of COVID infection among the public." Given the Trump administration attitude toward COVID testing (especially at the start), it's interesting that NHTSA creatively used its resources to help generate some much-needed data. In the context of the 2020 federal government, that qualifies as low-key rebellion.
So that's about it. NHTSA did some good things and some things that might be good but we don't yet know. And it did some sort of pointless things, and took credit for at least one thing that was the domain of an entirely different agency. Now we'll have four years to see how NHTSA functions under the Biden administration, and to ponder the real question we should be asking about the agency: Shouldn't we be calling it "the NHTSA"?
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How many stocks are right for me? It's a decision that many investors struggle with. If you own too many stocks, your returns could be diluted and make it difficult to keep track of all your holdings. If you own too few, a bad day for one or two stocks could make you lose sleep.
What's the "just right" number? As with many things in investing, it depends. In this Motley Fool Live video segment, originally recorded on Jan. 14, Fool.com contributors Jason Hall and Brian Withers share what's right for them and how Withers' number has changed over time.
Jason Hall: Well, that's exactly, I think why we're doing this session, right? Because this is something that I see questions on "The Wrap" about this a lot. People, especially newer investors, trying to figure out how many stocks is too few and how many stocks is too many. The general answer is it depends, right? We're going to talk a lot about that. I think Brian, just as the starting point here to kick off what we're going to talk about, describe a little bit about your portfolio. You've put together some great slides, you can do a screen share. Talk about how your portfolio has evolved over the years from one that was closer to mine, where I own well over a 100 individual stocks. Your portfolio now is less than two dozen. So talk about that. If you want to just share that part.
Brian Withers: Yeah, that'd be great. Over time, being a Fool member and actually being a Fool One member since 2014, I've had access to tons of great recommendations. Over the years, the number of stocks I've owned has approached 100. In the 2016-2017 timeframe, I don't know if it was conjecture or just looking at my portfolio and have been doing it for about a decade or so but I then thought that there was a better way for me. I want to share what I've done over the last few years and how that's materialized. This was my portfolio in 2017. My largest stockholding was Amazon, up a little bit more than 15 [% of my portfolio]. This [the vertical axis] is the total percent of the whole stock portfolio. MercadoLibre was in the high single digits, and Starbucks was right around 5% and all the rest of them were smaller. Over time, sometimes I had to scratch my head and go, "Do I own that, or not?"
Hall: This was 2017, you said? It's three years ago.
Withers: Yeah, this was 2017. Let me click on that. There we ago. It was a total of 82 stocks there. You might not be able to see the tickers, but that's not really important. It's just to see that there's a lot of them and there's a lot of them that the bars are really kind of what I noticed was that the amount invested in the ones in the tail were pretty small. I always focused on my top 10. My top 10 was 52 percent of the overall, so I felt like I was pretty well weighted, and a majority of my wealth was in a few stocks that I could follow really closely. But the number of positions that were less than one percent of my portfolio was 53. I was like, oh, that's not too bad. It only makes up 17% of the portfolio. This was one where the thought process was spreading your bets. But if you look at a picture, now I'm going to represent the 53 graphically. That's the 53. When you do that, to me, that's like, wow, that's a big chunk of the portfolio.
Atlassian, which I've talked about, was number 59 in 2017. We did a deep dive on Atlassian last week. It's one of my favorite holdings, which you'll see a little later. It's a much bigger position. If I was excited about Atlassian, and say it doubled or even tripled, it would still be in this long bar of really small impact to my stocks. I noticed that there were some winners down there and there were some ones that I wasn't super confident about. In 2017, I started down the path just trimming out things. Under Armour was one of my large positions, you can see it here. It underperformed significantly in 2016 and 2017. In fact, I think 2016 I lost to the market because it was my number one position. [laughs] That scarred my perspective and my thought process. I wanted to get away from companies that needed a retail presence or a physical presence, more of a physical brick-and-mortar presence to sell our products, or make their revenue. That was my first striving effort [to trim down my portfolio].
What I've done, and I've gone way beyond that since then. This is the 82 that I had in 2017, and the number that was less than 1%. Over the past one, two, three years, I've trended down slowly over time and moved that money up, basically thinking about moving things from these small, selling out in the small positions and moving them to positions that I had higher confidence in. Then sometime in 2019, similar to Brian Feroldi and Brian Stoffel, I put a checklist together that really defined my process in what stocks that I liked. That helped me trim it even more. Now I'm down to 21. I'm happy to add things [new stocks], but every time I look at adding something, I look at what stocks did I have and decide whether, is this better than one of the ones that I already own?
Hall: Brian, I have a quick question here in regards to that, because I think this is an important part of how people structure their portfolios. You're not a lot older, maybe a little bit older than me, but you're in a semi-retired state, but also earning income as well. My question is, are you at a point where you're still adding any money into your investing accounts?
Withers: That's a good question. Yeah. When I left corporate, I'm 53 today, will be 54 a little later this year, and we were at a position where the job that my wife and I have cover about two-thirds of our expenses over the course of the year. That allows me to withdraw like 1-2%, looking at the 4% rule, which is more like the 5% rule. The rule of thumb that says you can withdraw four percent from your nest egg and be able to make it through an average retirement. We wanted to certainly pull less than that. As well, because potentially our retirement is going to be longer than 30 years, or the semi-retirement state. Yes, I don't have any new money coming in. As I've gone down, the decisions to sell and which ones to keep have been harder and harder and harder, [laughs] which is a good thing. It means that I'm left with companies that I feel really strongly about, and have a tremendous amount of conviction, and know very well. Back in 2017 and 2018, if I needed to raise money to add to a new position or sell something, it was a pretty easy decision because I was still trimming my portfolio quite a bit.
Great question. I think it really depends on what stage of your life you're in as well. When I was working, I didn't have time to dedicate to the stocks as much as I do today. Maybe having more stocks at that point in my life, it's what I did. It's what felt right to me. This is just a little bit just comparison. You saw some of these earlier numbers. The value of the one-percenters have gone down considerably. Now this is something, as you get less stocks, the average position size gets much larger. This is four times as large as the positions that I had in 2017. That's something that I've had to get comfortable with, and I am because these I feel like are my 21 best ideas right now. Interestingly enough, the largest holding is about the same. It hasn't changed considerably in the side. This is my portfolio today. This is [my] stocks as of yesterday. You can see Atlassian, which remember was a 0.2 [percent] position before, now is more like a five percent position and has much more. If it doubles from here, that's driving considerable impact to my overall portfolio.
The buy local movement that crystallized during the holiday season saved several small retail shops in Minnesota that had dismal years because of the pandemic.
And those stores are hoping the movement stays alive in 2021 as the economy hopefully opens back up as enough people are vaccinated. The stores' fortunes are important since they fuel smaller retail areas from Stillwater and Excelsior to Grand Avenue in St. Paul and rural downtowns.
"People shopped local like they have never done before" during the holidays, said owner Bill Damberg, owner of Brightwater Clothing & Gear in downtown Excelsior. "I can't count the number of customers who said they wanted to patronize Excelsior stores. We have four blocks of small shops, no chains, and there's not a vacant space available on Main Street."
Damberg's business during the year's fourth quarter rose by nearly 20% over last year, offsetting losses in earlier months.
Shop owners spent the year scrambling to adjust to pandemic-related restrictions — building websites, setting up curbside pickup, creating a safe in-store shopping experience at the same time they were redoing loans or rent agreements, applying for government loans and grants and losing colleagues to furloughs, layoffs or closures.
Sometimes all for nothing. Retailers that sell clothes and shoes were the hardest hit as spending shifted due to the pandemic, shrinking more than 12%, according to Coresight Research.
But the buy local campaigns — and the traffic that followed — gave retailers an emotional boost.
"Tears were shed when the retail committee of the Northfield Chamber of Commerce discussed its holiday campaign of 'Be local, buy local' during a Zoom meeting," said Krin Finger, owner of the Rare Pair shoes and apparel store in the college town south of Minneapolis. "I took it one step further and put up signs in my windows that said 'Buy local or bye local.' "
With Carleton and St. Olaf mostly online, Northfield's retailers lost a big chunk of their customer base in students and their parents. Even with the increase in interest, Rare Pair's sales declined by 15% in the last quarter.
Red Balloon Bookshop on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, though, had one of its best holiday seasons ever thanks to deliberate attempts to support local businesses, said owner Holly Weinkauf.
Business was up 20% over the holiday months. Before the pandemic, the store would get 30 to 60 online orders a month. During the holidays, it received more than 100 a day, Weinkauf said.
Gift-card sales nearly tripled because many loyal customers asked their family members to buy their gifts from the local children's bookshop.
Weinkauf and others said the buy local effort was much more deliberate in 2020. But many also said they put time and effort into the fundamentals of both business and marketing practices that may have paid off at the end of the year.
Damberg enhanced his Brightwater website but earned scant sales from it. He attributes targeted buying and regular communication. He wrote monthly e-mails to his customers called tThe Shopkeeper's Journal, musings of a magical time spent Up North before the pandemic hit and nods to warm, toasty clothing without being blatantly promotional.
Finger scrapped the usually tasteful, aesthetically pleasing window displays at Rare Pair and instead lined up the shoes with the price clearly marked to grab the attention of the fewer amount of people walking by.
For years, retail analysts have said that small shops need to tell their stories to establish a narrative that sets them apart from larger competitors.
Karl Benson — co-owner of Cooks at Crocus Hill locations in Stillwater, North Loop in Minneapolis and on Grand Avenue in St. Paul — said the pandemic gave him the opportunity to sharpen his focus.
When many popular sellers weren't available due to supply-chain issues, he doubled down on local products. When 10-inch skillets were back-ordered from suppliers, he found locally produced jams.
"We enticed people with stories rather than promotions," he said. "We packaged pasta machines with Baker's Field flour of Minneapolis and Italian hardware with foods from Great Ciao in Minneapolis. We wanted to create that authentic time around the dinner table."
Kitchen stores benefited from homebound families with a newfound interest in cooking, but many other small retailers were reminded how important restaurants are to their businesses.
The buy local movement started early in the pandemic when people realized that unless they supported their favorite restaurants, they would close. The support then trickled down to book, toy and clothing stores.
"People knew they could still get the best price online, but during the pandemic, people became less price-resistant," said Craig Rowley, a retail expert at Korn Ferry in Dallas.
The restaurant closings hurt traffic to neighboring shops in the small retail areas in Minnesota.
"Restaurants do a good job of supporting small businesses by bringing people into an area," said Matthew Marsh, a retail industry expert at Deloitte business consultants in Minneapolis.
Edina-based Evereve, which runs 94 stores across the country including 10 in the Twin Cities, saw brick-and-mortar store sales decline by 25%. Online sales tempered the losses.
"Never before was I so excited to be down only 11%," said Mike Tamte, co-chief executive of the chain. "We were planning about a 33% drop for our brick-and-mortar stores."
Nationwide, holiday sales rose by more than 5%, according to the National Retail Federation. But despite gains for some retailers, 65% of small businesses did not post a revenue gain in the fourth quarter, according to Veem, a global payments network.
Sales at Shop in the City in Edina and Stillwater decreased by about 15%, but owner Jake Sanders is thankful to still be open.
"2020 was not a good year, but I saw a glimmer of hope at the end," he said. "Retail isn't dead but it's getting triaged."
Consumer behavior is difficult to predict, but some experts think that people are hungering for retail therapy almost as much as travel escapes.
"There will be a need to get out and shop as people get past the pandemic and feel more comfortable walking down the streets to check out the shops," said Marsh from Deloitte.
But shop owners also must remember what got them through 2020, and continue to invest in e-commerce and clarify what makes them stand out from competitors, said Carlos Castelan, managing director of the Navio Group, a management consulting firm in Minneapolis.
Damberg said Brightwater made it through 2020 because of more than $100,000 in government loans and grants.
"It's allowed me to get on solid ground. Without it, Brightwater may not have survived," he said.
But he is feeling more confident going into 2021 because not only did he get a boost at the end of the year, but he also became a better business person. He knows the reason why every single item is in his store. Now, he is hoping the buy local sentiment will remain.
"People are realizing the value that small shops provide," he said. "The feeling is there is light at the end of tunnel."
In September, they set up a Tree Protection Camp to protest against the £106bn scheme, claiming the small green space near Euston station will be built over with a temporary taxi rank before being sold to developers as part of plans for the high-speed railway.
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Veteran environmental campaigner Daniel Cooper - known as Swampy and who is in the tunnel - said on Friday the situation was "not safe" after it rained overnight.
"There's not enough room for people to get out quickly from this tunnel," he said.
The National Eviction Team previously warned the "very dangerous" tunnels could collapse.
In a statement, HS2 said: "We are concerned that the occupants of the tunnel are now impeding efforts to help them, shutting themselves off underground, and preventing us from checking air quality as we supply them with air.
"As carbon dioxide can build up in the tunnel, they are putting themselves in even greater danger."
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HS2 said paramedics and police officers had spoken to the protesters to warn them of the dangers they have put themselves in. Firefighters have also been to the scene to prepare any rescue plans.
"These activists have had multiple opportunities to remove themselves from the danger they have put themselves in.
"For their own safety and the safety of our staff and the emergency service personnel at Euston, we urge them to get out of the tunnel."
HS2 is set to link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It is hoped the 20-year project will reduce rail passenger overcrowding and help to rebalance the UK's economy.
The campaign group alleges HS2 is the "most expensive, wasteful and destructive project in UK history" and that it is "set to destroy or irreparably damage 108 ancient woodlands and 693 wildlife sites".
However, HS2 bosses said seven million trees would be planted during phase one of the project and that much ancient woodland would "remain intact".
The breweries formed the Alliance of Minnesota Craft Breweries to bring awareness to removing the state's current cap, which says only breweries that produce less than 20-thousand barrels a year can sell growlers.
"With the loss of the growlers in October of 2019 we had an immediate drop of 30 percent of our tap room revenues. Specifically with the pandemic and with the closures we have not been able to do any off sale, any to go sale whatsoever out of our taproom. Our tap room was closed for basically six months out of 2020. Our tap room staff was furloughed with no work for them to do," said Jamie MacFarlane, the chief financial manager for Castle Danger Brewery.
As a result, hundreds of kegs of beer in the tap room unable to be sold have expired and get dumped down the drain.
"For Fulton we have 30 employees. That is down over 25% due to COVID-19. It's going to take years for us to recover. Sixty percent of our business is draft, it's going to your local bar and restaurant," said Jim Diley, the co-owner of Fulton Brewing.
Brewery staff emphasized growlers help in promoting tourism and jobs, saying it benefits the three tier system and adds tax dollars to the state. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle say they agree and want the cap to change.
"We are penalizing businesses for being successful. We can not do that. We have to change this law and get this limit where it should be," said Republican Sen. John Jasinski, who represents Faribault.
"This is a bipartisan issue and it should be because everyone should be in favor of small businesses and helping small businesses grow," said DFL Sen. Sandy Pappas, who represents St. Paul.
"Growlers offer a little glimmer of hope for us and the other breweries in Minnesota that can't sell them," said Diley.
"We are trying to change this law so that Minnesota breweries no matter how big or small can continue to grow in Minnesota, employ Minnesotans, local people, give back to their local economies and communities at no cost to the state. We in turn would actually give more revenues into the state of Minnesota by the growler sales," said MacFarlane.
Jasinksi said have a 'Free the Growler' bill getting drafted that they are hoping to introduce soon to make a change in the cap this legislative session.
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BRISTOL, England — As an island and ancient seafaring nation, the United Kingdom’s fishing communities have an outsize impact on the country’s identity.
So it should be no surprise that their fate loomed over Brexit negotiations, with politicians promising fishermen they would be big winners after the U.K. left the European Union.
But now, many members of the fishing community say they feel let down by the government. Instead of boosting the industry, they say, the new trade deal fails to deliver on lawmakers’ Brexit promises, has choked their businesses with red tape and left the struggling sector to wither away further.
“The deal was absolutely shameful and disgraceful — that’s the only way to describe it,” said David Pessell, the managing director of Plymouth Trawler Agents, a fish auctioneering business in southwest England. “They broke their word on every count in effect.”
Pessell, who voted to leave the E.U. in 2016, is far from alone in his belief that Brexit’s heralded rewards for the fishing industry have largely failed to materialize. Few in the seafood sector are happy with how things have turned out, with the details and ramifications of the U.K.-E.U. trade deal confirming fears and dashing hopes across the industry.
Trucks from Scottish seafood companies drive past the Houses of Parliament in a protest action by fishermen against post-Brexit red tape and coronavirus restrictions.Tolga Akmen / AFP - Getty Images
It was not supposed to be this way. After all, Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the post-Brexit fate of the country’s fishermen a central plank of his message.
“For the first time since 1973, we will be an independent coastal state with full control of our waters,” Johnson said in a Dec. 24 speech announcing the new trade deal, just days before the country completed its economic separation from the E.U. on Dec. 31.
Control of the seas was probably never going to be a major economic concern for the U.K. — after all, the fishing industry contributed less than 1 percent to the country’s gross domestic product in 2019. But the symbolic importance of the industry meant that in eleventh-hour trade negotiations, the issue became a key sticking point.
“He should have pushed it more, he promised it, he really promised that we would get our coastal waters back,” Phil Trebilcock, a fisherman in the southwest coastal town of Newquay, said of Johnson. “‘Ah, yeah, we’ll get it, we’ll get it,’ and in the end they didn’t,” he said, imitating members of the British government.
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Trebilcock, 67, was among the fishermen who spoke to NBC News in the summer of 2017 about what Brexit could mean for the industry. At the time, he and others said they hoped that breaking free from Brussels would allow the U.K. to extricate itself from the E.U.’s complex quota system, which dictates how much fish its vessels can catch, and put a stop to foreign boats chasing fish in its waters.
Today, he is disappointed that the deal allows some foreign boats continued access to the country’s coastal waters for at least the next five and a half years, and says a gradual increase in the amount of seafood British fishermen are allowed to catchin U.K. waters over the same period does not go far enough. After that, reciprocal access to territorial waters and new quotas will have to be negotiated.
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While many of the fishermen who spoke to NBC News in 2017 cheered on Brexit, a good number of those who processed and exported fish expressed concern about the impending divorce. Some of their fears have now been realized, as fallout from the new trade deal is already being felt.
Seafood exporters complain they are incurring new costs due to the extensive paperwork now needed to deliver goods to the continent, a major concern since the U.K. exports most of the fish it catches.
Some also say border checks and customs declarations have caused substantial delays to trucks carrying the perishable goods abroad at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has already led to lower market prices and demand.
“Since we’ve left Europe, it’s been an absolute nightmare,” said Ian Perkes, a fish exporter from Brixham, a fishing town in the English county of Devon.
A seagull looks out over moored fishing vessels in the harbour at Scarborough northeast England, earlier this month.Oli Scarff / AFP - Getty Images file
Perkes, who voted to leave the E.U., said he’s lost thousands of pounds in sales due to Brexit red tape, as he was initially unable to export to the continent because he did not have the correct paperwork.
While logistical issues have begun to ease, he says he’s still concerned his business will not be able to survive if the increased cost of routine paperwork needed to export to the E.U. persists.
“If I knew this was going to be the outcome, then obviously I would not have voted to leave,” he said.
On Jan. 18, seafood firms staged a protest in London by driving delivery trucks from as far away as Scotland past the houses of Parliament, with signs declaring “Brexit carnage” and “Incompetent government destroying shellfish industry!”
Johnson has said the issues are “teething problems” and pledged a 23 million pound compensation fund for businesses that “through no fault of their own” have experienced bureaucratic delays and difficulties delivering their goods.
But Perkes said any compensation would not be enough as it wouldn’t cover the ongoing costs exporters face because of Brexit.
“It’s all ended up in a mess,” he said. “We’re very, very disappointed.”
While many at the protests are critical of Aleksei A. Navalny, the Kremlin’s treatment of the opposition leader has united a disparate group of Putin’s opponents who say they can no longer tolerate official injustice.
MOSCOW — Aleksandr Pasechnik, a socialist, sees the jailed opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny as part of the “liberal intelligentsia.” Mikhail Svetov, Russia’s best-known libertarian, recoils from Mr. Navalny’s economic populism. Olga Nikiforova, a monarchist, long refused to believe that Mr. Navalny was poisoned.
Yet despite their misgivings, all three risked arrest to join the protests that swept across Russia last weekend calling for Mr. Navalny’s release — and were considering doing so again on Sunday.
“Entering a phase of intense crisis is a lesser evil than this slow degradation of the country,” Mr. Pasechnik, 42, said. “We need this catalyst, now.”
Opposition to President Vladimir V. Putin has long come in many hues — from Stalinists who dream of resurrecting the planned economy, to nationalists who want to restrict migration and annex more of Ukraine, to urban liberals who long for democracy and closer ties with the West. Rarely have these disparate groups come together as they have in the last week around Mr. Navalny — because the moment has arrived, more and more Russians say, when they can no longer abide passive acceptance of Mr. Putin.
“Navalny has, for the first time, sparked a Russian protest movement against the president,” said Konstantin Gaaze, a sociologist at the Moscow School for Social and Economic Sciences. “It is a historic moment for the country.”
Mr. Putin is in position to ride out the protests, as he has in the past, using a sprawling security apparatus adept at stifling discontent while avoiding large-scale repression that could inflame passions further. Even many of the protesters themselves said it would take far bigger crowds to persuade the Kremlin to change course.
Tens of thousands of protesters across Russia demonstrated last week in response to the jailing of the opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Still, the latest flash of discontent is notable because it unites right and left, old and young; and the protesters, rather than vaguely targeting government officials, are unabashedly attacking Mr. Putin himself.
That means Mr. Putin faces an unusually volatile moment — as evidenced by the extraordinary spectacle recently of the president personally denying Mr. Navalny’s accusation that he had built himself a secret palace on the Black Sea.
Mr. Putin’s usually atomized critics have come together around the figure of Mr. Navalny, 44, not for his political views but because he is perceived as a symbol of the main source of the anger that many Russians feel toward the Kremlin: injustice.
Ms. Nikiforova, the monarchist, who is 37 and works as a screenwriter in Moscow, initially went along with the narrative of a Russia rising from its knees under Mr. Putin that is piped out constantly by state TV. She remembered the broken street lamps of the post-Soviet 1990s, the used needles discarded by drug addicts cracking underfoot on Moscow’s sidewalks, and saw the possibility of wealth and hopes of a revival under Mr. Putin, who took power in 1999.
Years later, after she became a parent, she saw the failings of Russia’s schools, courts and hospitals. But she still believed that Mr. Putin’s government could improve. And she refused to accept that the state he ruled had something to do with the atrocities attributed to it in the West — like the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in 2014 or the poisoning of Mr. Navalny in Siberia last summer.
“I’m happy that more and more people now understand the law and the truth are on our side,” Mr. Navalny told the court by video link from jail on Thursday.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
“He won’t stop on his own,” Ms. Nikiforova wrote on Facebook on Jan. 23, in a post that has since garnered 6,600 “likes,” comparing Mr. Putin to an abusive husband. “This is a moment when a great number of people just can’t take it anymore.”
So last Saturday, Ms. Nikiforova packed tangerines in a shopping bag and made a dentist’s appointment, so as to have two alibis when she went to the protest, which the authorities declared illegal. She said she personally would like Russia to be a constitutional monarchy, like Britain, but said that Mr. Navalny’s precise political views were now beside the point.
“We simply don’t have any other real opposition,” Ms. Nikiforova said. “There is no choice. We have Navalny, who has truly shown that he can resist those in power.”
Vladimir Milov, a former deputy energy minister and now an adviser to Mr. Navalny, said the opposition leader’s team did not view ideology as an important factor in mobilizing protesters.
“The vast majority of people who come out are not partisans of any ideology or have specific views — they just want change in the country,” Mr. Milov said. “Most people who participate in protest movements are just tired of corruption.”
Mr. Navalny made a name as an anticorruption blogger in the early 2000s, but also engaged in nationalist politics, turning off many liberals. Three-quarters of the viewers of his “Navalny Live” YouTube channel were men, its director, Lyubov Sobol, told The New York Times last May. Ms. Sobol attributed that phenomenon to Mr. Navalny’s brusque, radical style.
Yet last weekend, about 45 percent of those at Mr. Navalny’s rally in Moscow were women, and 42 percent said they had never protested before this year, according to a group of sociologists who surveyed the crowd.
“The madness and the lawlessness have reached an utterly colossal scale,” said Zalina Marshenkulova, a feminist activist, explaining why she supports the protests even though Mr. Navalny has been accused of sexism in the past. “It’s rather hard to talk about women’s rights when we don’t have human rights.”
“The madness and the lawlessness have reached an utterly colossal scale,” said Zalina Marshenkulova, a feminist activist.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
Among those who had never attended a Navalny rally before was Mr. Pasechnik, a blogger and filmmaker who wants Russia to be a socialist democracy in which the means of production belong to the state.
When Mr. Navalny led major protests in Moscow in the winter of 2012, Mr. Pasechnik saw him as part of a subversive “fifth column” planted inside Russia by the West. Like most Russians, he celebrated Mr. Putin’s annexation of Crimea two years later. But he was disappointed that the Kremlin did not bring eastern Ukraine into the fold as well.
He says he finds Mr. Navalny just about as distasteful as he finds Mr. Putin, seeing both as beholden to the capitalist West. But he sees the current protests as the best chance to try to bring change, offering an opening for movements such as his own. And he called for solidarity with Mr. Navalny over his persecution by the state, cautioning that “what happened to him could happen to any of us.”
“People understand that this is Russia’s Politician Number One,” he said of Mr. Navalny. “If he calls for going into the streets, we all understand that people will come out, and other forces must make use of this.”
Mr. Navalny reiterated his support for protests in a cinematic courtroom speech on Thursday. He faces another hearing next Tuesday, when he could be sentenced to several years in prison for alleged parole violations related to a suspended sentence for embezzlement he received in 2014. Europe’s top human rights court has ruled that his conviction was politically motivated.
“I’m happy that more and more people now understand the law and the truth are on our side,” Mr. Navalny told the court by video link from jail on Thursday. “We are the majority, and we will not allow small bunches of villains to force their ways upon our country.”
Protesters with banners reading “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be silent,” in Moscow last week.Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times
The Kremlin counters that Mr. Navalny’s backers make up a small minority of the country, and his true support remains hard to measure. Even many Russians who agree with Mr. Navalny’s description of the ruling elite as corrupt still fear that chaos would ensue were Mr. Putin forced to give up power.
Mr. Svetov — a 36-year-old nationalist libertarian inspired by former President Donald J. Trump — is among Mr. Putin’s most prominent critics on the Russian right. He says Mr. Putin’s image as a defender of conservative, Christian values is a figment of Kremlin propaganda, belied by the president’s openness to immigration from Central Asia and his close ties with Ramzan Kadyrov, the brutal leader of the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya.
Mr. Svetov says 29 members of his Libertarian Party of Russia have been arrested in connection with last Saturday’s pro-Navalny rallies. Speaking over an encrypted connection while in hiding from the police, Mr. Svetov said that the protests were “more angry than ever before in Putin’s Russia” but that the crowds appeared insufficient to persuade the Kremlin to free Mr. Navalny.
“My forecast is not very optimistic, unfortunately,” Mr. Svetov said. “I think a lot of people came out — but not in numbers that will be able to achieve something.”
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden warned Friday of a steep and growing “cost of inaction” on his $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan as the White House searched for “creative” ways to win public support for a package that is getting a cold shoulder from Senate Republicans.
In the age of COVID, it’s not as simple as jumping on a plane to travel the country and try to gin up a groundswell. And at a time of deep polarization, Biden may struggle to convince Republican voters of the urgency when Congress already has approved $4 trillion in aid, including $900 billion last month.
Biden signaled on Friday for the first time that he's willing to move ahead without Republicans.
“I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it," he told reporters. "But the COVID relief has to pass. No ifs, ands or buts.”
His message so far has been that a fresh $1.9 trillion in aid would be a bargain compared to the potential damage to the world's largest economy if it doesn't pass. An aggressive push for vaccinations and generous aid to individuals would help put parents back to work and let children return to school and improve their lifetime earnings, Biden said at a Friday meeting with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. They met in the Oval Office, where the fireplace was lit to protect against the chill in Washington.
“We have learned from past crises that the risk is not doing too much,” he said. “The risk is not doing enough.”
Only a week into his presidency, Biden is confronting the challenge of selling his first major piece of legislation to a country he has pledged to unite. Private calls with Republican lawmakers have yet to produce any progress on reaching a deal, while Senate Democrats are now preparing to pass the measure strictly on partisan lines as soon as next week.
Some Biden allies have expressed frustration that the administration has not more clearly defined what the massive legislation would actually accomplish. The new president instead has largely focused his first nine days in office on signing executive orders rolling back his predecessor’s policies.
In particular, Biden, for whom the widespread distribution of coronavirus vaccines will be a defining test, has not explained what the increased money for testing and vaccination would achieve -- including how much quicker the White House believes it would help bring about an end to the pandemic.
Biden's outreach to senators has largely brought criticism that the plan should be more targeted and that the country can afford to wait to see the effects of the stimulus dollars that were approved in December.
Republican lawmakers see a need for speeding vaccinations, but one Senate aide said their offices are not being bombarded with calls for an additional aid package. Constituents are more focused on the looming impeachment trial, said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
This has left the Biden team trying to expand its outreach beyond Capitol Hill.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden recognizes the importance of speaking directly to the American people about his plan for vaccinations and supporting the economy, but the pandemic has limited his ability to safely travel to drum up support. The administration is relying on TV interviews by White House officials and allies with local media and national shows like “The View,” as well as calls with governors, local officials and progressive and civic groups.
“We’re taking a number of creative steps, a little outside of the box,” Psaki said. “Certainly, his preference would be to get on a plane and fly around the country.”
Part of the challenge is that Biden must convince the public how different components of his proposal would work together. His plan allots $400 billion to spearhead a national vaccination program and the reopening of schools. It also includes $1,400 in direct payments to individuals, which critics say should be more targeted. And it includes a raise in the the minimum wage to $15 and aid for state and local governments, a nonstarter for most Republicans.
Many Republicans are under more political pressure from donors and activists back home to rein in spending than to approve more. Some Republicans particularly object to what are still seen by many as bailouts for cash-strapped state and local governments.
Some do support a deal, just not what Biden is offering. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a member of a bipartisan group of legislators contacted by the administration, said he supports funds for vaccine distribution and even potentially extra jobless benefits, but he wants a full accounting of what funding remains from previous aid packages.
“Unemployment insurance, they think it’s an emergency, well we have unemployment insurance in place until mid March. Where’s the emergency?” Portman said. “Am I against extending it, no I’m not. I think we should, based on some economic factors. But it just doesn’t make sense.”
Recent economic reports show the economy is still under severe strain, yet there is also the potential for the strongest growth in more than two decades once the coronavirus is contained.
The Commerce Department said Thursday the U.S. economy shrank 3.5% last year, and on Friday it reported that consumer spending — the main driver of growth — had slumped 0.2% in December. But the consumer spending report also suggested that the expanded unemployment benefits from the $900 billion aid package passed that same month had managed to boost incomes.
Gregory Daco, an economist at Oxford Economics, said, "The COVID relief bill of December essentially addressed the past, the dwindling aid at the end of 2020,” Now the administration must sell the public on what lies ahead.
He said, “The American Rescue Plan — it’s a plan geared toward the future, bridging the gap between January and September, when people will be able to spend more freely.”
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