FazzNoth

Technologically speaking, the COVID-19 pandemic made Americans more connected than ever. From smart TVs and internet-enabled toys to game consoles, the average home today has 25 connected devices more than twice as much as in 2019. This profusion of technology comes at a cost: A gushing river of electronic waste. Gadgets are the fastest-growing category of trash, as well as the most polluting. Old devices are liable to leach toxic chemicals or catch fire. Recycling rates are dismal: Less than one-fifth of electronics is typically recycled every year. "Globally, we're generating e-waste that weighs as much as 100 blue whales a day, and 80% to 81% of that is not going to be recycled," said Elizabeth Chamberlain, director of sustainability at iFixit, a community of repair enthusiasts. Faced with this crisis, some major technology companies have taken steps to lessen the environmental impact of their products. After years of effectively encouraging planned obsolescence, Apple, Samsung and Google are letting customers fix some of their products, prolonging their lifespan. Critics say that's not enough, pushing companies to do more and for government regulators to hold their feet to the fire. As consumers recognize Earth Day on Friday, they can take steps to reduce the impact of their tech and save money to boot. Here's what environmental advocates suggest for making the most of your devices. Keep your device longer In looking at new devices, the first question should be whether to buy one at all. If you can avoid getting a new smartphone or laptop, either by repairing an older model or installing a few upgrades to get another year of use out of an existing gadget, do so, experts advise. "The vast majority of a device's carbon footprint comes from the manufacturing process," Chamberlain said. Americans buy about 161 million new phones every year, according to a recent study from U.S. PIRG. If everyone kept a smartphone for an additional year instead of upgrading, it would reduce emissions as much as taking 636,000 cars off the road. One major reason people replace their phones is to get more battery life. Replacing an older phone's battery is no longer as easy as it used to be, but it's still one way to extend the life of your device and costs much less than buying a new one. For instance, iFixit sells an iPhone 12 battery replacement kit for $50, a repair the site rates as moderately difficult. Independent repair stores can sometimes replace device batteries, too. When buying a device, consider longevity When buying a new gadget, research how easy it is to upgrade or repair — that could have a big effect on how long you keep it. iFixit grades smartphones, laptops and tablets based on how easy they are to repair, and provides crowdsourced manuals for many devices. Note that some of those ratings could change soon now that some big tech companies are vowing to make it easier for people to get their products repaired. Apple has said consumers will be able to buy parts to do common repairs for the iPhone 12 and 13. Samsung in March announced a repair program for some Galaxy phones, and Google this month did the same for its Pixel phone. All are set to launch sometime this year. Beware devices that use a lot of glue to hold components together instead of screws or snaps — that's a sign fixing it could be challenging. Consumers can also seek out modular equipment, which is designed to be easy to take apart and customize. For example, the Framework laptop is a modular computer while the Fairphone aims to be a sustainable smartphone. Beware of cheap TVs Flat-screen TVs are particularly problematic since they're often large and not built to last. "We see so many flat-panel TVs it's depressing," said Amanda LaGrange, CEO of Tech Dump, a nonprofit in Minnesota's Twin Cities that refurbishes and recycles e-waste. "Often people are buying them on a Black Friday, say, where some manufacturers, not all, are reducing the quality of the components. That's how they can make it cheaper." To steer clear of the very cheapest options, LaGrange suggests that consumers check the model number of the TV they want. "See if it's sold at any other time of year. And if it's not, it's probably cheaper and then you can't affordably repair that item." Buy refurbished tech Tech Dump's twin organization, Tech Discounts, refurbishes used recent gadget models and sells them at a discount. Many nonprofits and online marketplaces do the same. Consumers shouldn't shy away from used tech because they assume it won't perform as well, said Amanda LaGrange said. Reputable retailers will do rigorous testing on refurbished stuff, and many will sell items with return policies and warranties comparable to that of new gadgets. "Once someone buys a refurbished electronic, people are much more likely to do it again. It's like buying a used pair of jeans for the first time," she said. "People think, 'Why was I throwing money away?'" Avoid the "pile of denial" When it's time to dispose of old electronics, give them a second life by passing them along to a friend or donating them to a recycling or refurbishing center. Many of these centers offer a financial bonus by letting someone write off the value of their donation. But they should do it fast, instead of letting old technology pile up, counsels LaGrange. She refers to the "pile of denial," where non-working electronics collect in a basement or garage for years. By the time someone donates them, they're often too old to be refurbished and can only be tossed. "If you brought in your iPhone X that's sitting in a drawer now, it could easily be refurbished," she said. "If you wait six more years, it's not so easy." Support the "right to repair" Despite a growing national movement around ensuring that consumers can repair their devices an issue that is overwhelmingly po[CENSORED]r and that has bipartisan support in Congress no state has yet codified that right into law. That needs to change to cut down on e-waste, said Nathan Proctor, head of the Right to Repair campaign at the Public Interest Research Group. "In terms of winning the argument, winning the public, we're in a really strong position" he said. "In terms of actually fixing stuff, we're just getting started." Currently, nine states are considering bills strengthening consumers' right to repair. In addition, three bills have been introduced in Congress that would ease repair rights for cars, electronics and tractors. Pressure from the Biden administration, which has pushed for consumers' rights to repair, is a major reason that tech companies have softened their anti-repair stance, in Proctor's view. But making that change permanent requires putting new laws on the books. "These companies, their job is to make money. And it's our jobs as citizen of this country to make sure they do it without hurting consumers and hurting the planet," Proctor said. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/earth-day-2022-smart-phones-flat-screen-tv-electronic-waste/

Gannett Co., Inc. ("Gannett", the "Company") (NYSE: GCI) announced today that it will release its first quarter 2022 financial results on Thursday, May 5, 2022, prior to the opening of the New York Stock Exchange. Management will host a conference call on Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 8:30 A.M. Eastern Time. A copy of the earnings release will be posted to the Investor Relations section of Gannett's website, investors.gannett.com. All interested parties are welcome to participate on the live call. The conference call may be accessed by dialing 1-877-451-6152 (from within the U.S.) or 1-201-389-0879 (from outside of the U.S.) ten minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call; please reference "Gannett First Quarter Earnings Call" or access code "13724044". A simultaneous webcast of the conference call will be available to the public on a listen-only basis at investors.gannett.com. Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the website and download any necessary software required to listen to the internet broadcast. A telephonic replay of the conference call will also be available approximately two hours following the call's completion through 11:59 P.M. Eastern Time on Thursday, May 19, 2022 by dialing 1-844-512-2921 (from within the U.S.) or 1-412-317-6671 (from outside of the U.S.); please reference access code "13724044". About Gannett About Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is a subscription-led and digitally-focused media and marketing solutions company committed to empowering communities to thrive. With an unmatched reach at the national and local level, Gannett touches the lives of millions with our Pulitzer Prize-winning content, consumer experiences and benefits, and advertiser products and services. Our current portfolio of media assets includes USA TODAY, local media organizations in 45 states in the U.S., and Newsquest, a wholly owned subsidiary operating in the United Kingdom with more than 120 local news media brands. Gannett also owns digital marketing services companies marketed under the LOCALiQ brand, and runs one of the largest media-owned events business in the U.S., USA TODAY NETWORK Ventures. https://www.lelezard.com/en/news-20348510.html

In 1952 there were no big box stores, Ventura Boulevard was dotted with a just few new small businesses, and Woodland Hills moved at a slower pace. As a point of reference, St. Mel Church opened in 1956, Topanga Plaza opened in 1964, and Gemco (now Target) opened in 1967. What had been the sleepy town of Girard after the war turned into a hub for aerospace corporations – Rocketdyne, Hughes, Litton, Lockheed – and they brought families with them. At the heart of Woodland Hills, at Topanga and Ventura, was Franklin’s Hardware. It sold everything from plumbing to electrical to garden. It was the place to go for do-it-yourselfers, handymen and brand new homeowners. Customers say the thing about Franklin’s was that they always had the answer. Whether it was a specific bolt or screw, a piece of pipe, the right color paint or a duplicate house key, the staff always had it or knew how to get it. The business grew and grew and sustained the community for 70 years. From the moment it opened its doors, Franklin’s has always been a family business. Chip Kurzeka, who has been at the helm for the past 50 years, remembers coming to the store with his dad on the weekends to help out. Now, a third generation, Chip and Kim’s son Mike, has been working alongside his father for 10 years. According to Kim, “The main reason for the store’s success has always been our knowlegable employees, and the service we offer, which remain as the most important objectives today. As we say, those are our ‘tools of the trade.’” The community support has sustained Franklin’s over 70 years, and loyal customers have “become part of the family.” But as Kim says, life now moves at a faster pace than ever, and Mike keeps abreast of new products, current merchandising ideas and technological advances that keep the store in top shape and relevant. These days, Franklin’s still offers the traditional hardware store merchandise, as well as knife, scissor and garden tool sharpening, carpet cleaner rental, small hand and power tool rentals, computer paint, glass cutting, screen cutting and repair and lamp repair. The family is celebrating 70 years of success this weekend with a series of anniversary sales and events for the entire community. The anniversary sale will kick off Friday, April 22, and continue Saturday and Sunday. Each day there will be a daily raffle drawing for prizes, and Saturday’s big drawing will be for a Weber Spirit BBQ. On Friday receive $5 off any purchase of $25 or more on regular priced items. The first 200 customers on Saturday morning will receive a free five-gallon bucket to fill with merchandise and receive a 20% discount. On Saturday, also enjoy a BBQ demonstration and sampling by Traeger and Big Green Egg. Sunday features a hot dog BBQ lunch available by donation. Franklin’s will match the amount of money donated and give it to the West Valley Boys & Girls Club. Keystone members of the club will be at Franklin’s all day to assist. https://valleynewsgroup.com/local-hardware-store-still-serving-community-70-years-later/

People tend to think of city shelters in an old-school way when in fact today, they are often the driving force behind saving more lives in most communities. So far this fiscal year, ACS’ live release rate (the number of animals that make it out of the shelter through adoption, foster care, or transfer to a rescue group or another shelter) is 89 percent with 2,086 pets adopted, 4,922 pets rescued/transferred, and 2,565 pets returned to their owners. A shelter is considered “no kill” when it can save 90 percent of its pets. This level of lifesaving requires a highly committed staff keeping the pedal to the metal by delivering services and resources to the community and its rescue partners every day. Annually, ACS provides 3,000 free community cat surgeries. They maintain their own community cat colony on campus as well as a barn cat program that adopts community cats to businesses and companies willing to provide forever care in exchange for a community cat’s prowess at rodent control. Every day, ACS offers free and low-cost spay-neuter and vaccination services to the public. Residents living in lower-income ZIP codes often qualify for free services. Microchips are free if you live in San Antonio, and cost $5 if you don’t. ACS also partners with the Animal Defense League to host free monthly vaccination clinics in underserved areas. A new program coming online later this year is the C.A.S.A. Initiative (Community Animal Support & Assistance program). Through this program, ACS staff will help pet owners cited with animal violations come into compliance with San Antonio’s pet laws. This will be especially those pet owners who want to keep their pets but need a little help to do so. Services may include assistance with medical care, including spay/neuter surgery and vaccinations and microchips, as well as help with weatherproofing shelters andproviding humane tethers for outdoor dogs. As for the people who work there, public relations and outreach manager Lisa Norwood “We care, and we care hard. Every day, we see the worst that we as humans can do to pets in our community, and we still come back to work the next day.” https://www.expressnews.com/lifestyle/article/San-Antonio-s-Animal-Care-Services-a-driving-17088286.php

Two years ago, Chelse Herbold was a food service worker with a bachelor's degree in geology that wasn't helping her pay the rent. Today, Herbold, 28, has an associate's degree in automotive technology that she earned on the job as the first woman auto technician at West Herr Kia. Herbold is one of the first graduates of a new SUNY Erie Community College program that was created to produce skilled workers for an industry that's badly in need of mechanics. Instructor Mike Coughlin, left, shows students how to recover the refrigerant from the air conditioning system so they can remove the brake booster on a Jaguar. Students from left are Nate Mittelsteadt and Prajwal Dhimal. In fact, it's so hard to hire auto technicians that two of the region's biggest car dealers, West Herr Automotive Group and Northtown Automotive Cos., have partnered with ECC to build a direct pathway to train and hire students. Northtown even built a classroom, lab space and four dedicated service bays at its new Jaguar/Land Rover dealership in Amherst for its ECC co-op program. The program produces auto technicians, but it's a model for future "earn while you learn" partnerships that train workers in in-demand skills and pay them to get on-the-job training while earning their credentials. Jay Galligan, a vice president at West Herr, said the program has produced 12 current and 12 soon-to-be employees for the company. The program funnels trained workers to West Herr and Northtown at a time when there are more open jobs than people looking for work. “We employ over 500 technicians, and we retire 5% to 10% a year, so just to replace our retirees we need 30 or 40 new technicians at any given time to add to our team,” Galligan said. “ECC reached out to us about adding co-op experience to their auto tech program and helped build this model. It has now become a permanent program in the college, and we are thrilled to be part of it.” ECC President David Balkin calls the program an example of the partnerships needed between higher education and industry to serve the needs of today’s students and employers. It also helps ECC by creating a program that it can market as a pathway to a career for students at a time when enrollment is declining. “SUNY Erie is working with companies who are in competition, but who recognize that a rising tide will lift all boats,” Balkin said. The partnerships with West Herr and Northtown predated Balkin taking over as ECC president, but he quickly seized on them as an opportunity to develop other feeder programs for worker-strapped employers. Balkin said ECC and the dealerships see the program "as the way forward for recruiting, training and retaining qualified technicians.” West Herr Automotive piloted the program at ECC’s Vehicle Technology Training Center in Orchard Park in 2019 and the first class of 12 students, including Herbold, graduated last May. All 12 were immediately hired as full-time technicians at West Herr dealerships. The second class of 12 will graduate this May and are guaranteed jobs as well. The auto co-op provides more hands-on experience than classroom time and includes time working in paid positions with the hiring dealership, Balkin said. Students rotate between spending 7½ weeks working with mentors at a dealership service department and then 7½ weeks of classroom coursework, Balkin said. The dealers provide tuition assistance and retention bonuses to help them buy their own tools once hired. More Info: https://buffalonews.com/business/local/workers-hard-to-find-auto-dealers-build-direct-path-from-college-to-a-job/article_f6b354b4-af95-11ec-a6fc-3322eedcda31.html

Nicolas Cage is having a baby girl with his fifth wife Riko Shibata. The couple will name their baby Lennon Augie in honor of the late Beatles musician John Lennon and Cage’s late father August “Augie” Coppola, Cage revealed on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Kelly Clarkson Show.” Cage’s announcement came as he reminisced about being “frozen, paralyzed” as a 4-year-old when his brother played “Across The Universe” from The Beatles’ album “Let It Be.” “It’s my favorite song ever written, which is why I’m going to announce some big news for everybody,” the action-movie star told Clarkson. “I’m going to have a little girl,” Cage continued. “And her name, because of ‘Across The Universe,’ her name is going to be Lennon Augie. Augie after my father. And I will call her Lennie, for short.” “I’m thrilled, it’s going to be the biggest adventure of my life,” he added. Cage and Shibata married in February 2021. In January, they revealed they were expecting. Cage has sons Ka-El Coppola, 16, and Weston Coppola, 31, from previous relationships. If the new baby would have been a boy, the actor said earlier, the couple would have named him Akira Francesco. https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/entertainment-celebrity/nicolas-cage-announces-some-big-baby-news-on-kelly-clarkson-e2-80-99s-show/ar-AAWt0al?ocid=BingNewsSearch

Done.

Voted.

Nickname: @FazzNoth Video author: Meta Quest Name of the game: Espire 1: VR Operative Video link: Short description of the video: Experience unparalleled stealth action in both single player and cooperative campaigns with Espire 2: a full-fledged VR fps on Meta Quest 2 from developer Digital Lode and publisher Tripwire Presents.

The HomePod was Apple's first foray into the smart-speaker space, which has been dominated by Amazon's Alexa. A columnist at The Verge reviewed the HomePod and found that Siri functions well as an AI bot in the home - better than Siri's performance on the iPhone. But the original HomePod underperformed sales-wise, shipping out just a few hundred thousands units in its first quarter. Today, Apple has 10% of the smart speaker market share. The HomePod was taken off the market in March 2021 and replaced by the HomePod Mini. The original HomePod is having a resurgence on eBay with the rare distinction of selling for more than what Apple priced the device at. HomePods that are still sealed in their factory packaging are fetching for over $500 - nearly double Apple's pricepoint. On eBay, average price for the discontinued HomePod - excluding factory sealed HomePods - is $350. A brand-new HomePod Mini from Apple costs just $99, but has less computing power, fewer microphones for detecting commands and is not compatible with an AppleTV - which could be an explanation for why the original HomePod is thriving on third party markets. Apple lists the HomePod Mini under its "Other Products" tag. Reporters at TechCrunch said the HomePod was "a feat of audio engineering that Apple spent over five years developing." Apple even built a facility near their Cupertino headquarters, specifically for working on the HomePod. The Mini is available in five flashy colors including a new peachy orange and eye-catching yellow - the original was only released in white and space gray. Gadgets that are used and later made obsolete rarely appreciate in value - but some mint condition ancient Apple tech can go for five-digit sums. https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/18319224/apple-gadget-worth-more-than-double-four-years-ago/

New Market Bank and Teslar Software today announced their partnership to streamline the bank’s commercial and consumer lending processes. The bank will leverage Teslar’s configurable lending process automation platform, starting with exceptions management. “During the pandemic, Teslar Software proved that they stand with community banks during highs and lows, which made them stand out over other providers,” said Terra Henry, vice president of loan operations. “Though we are a smaller, family-owned institution, we’re committed to investing in the technology we need to keep up with changing expectations. With Teslar’s platform, our team can complete tasks faster and more easily, freeing up time to focus on deepening relationships with our loyal customers, many of whom we’ve served for generations.” Teslar’s toolset will automate and standardize loan processes to speed up loan origination and maintenance, making it more efficient for lenders while providing a best-in-class experience for customers. With enhanced visibility and communication between departments, New Market Bank will be able to seamlessly grow without adding resources. “New Market Bank understands that there doesn’t have to be a choice between exceptional, local service and leveraging modern technology,” said Joe Ehrhardt, CEO and founder of Teslar Software. “With Teslar, the bank will be able to spend less time gathering documents and more time doing what they do best: building meaningful relationships with their customers. We look forward to supporting New Market Bank as they continue to grow.” Teslar Software, founded in 2008, is a configurable lending process automation platform for community financial institutions. Teslar transforms commercial lending by providing easy access to centralized, relevant information to balance portfolios, optimize profits and help community bankers effectively serve their customers. Named Best Solution for Lending by the 2021 FinXTech Awards, Teslar Software continues to earn their reputation as a top technology provider for community institutions. More Info: https://apnews.com/press-release/business-wire/technology-business-software-springdale-5cd0525b61674f08b99321762712be9e

Today, the OCP Foundation, the nonprofit organization bringing hyperscale innovations to all, announced a new hardware-software co-design strategy that is exemplified by recent contributions to the OCP by Microsoft and Intel of the Scalable I/O (Input/Output) Virtualization (SIOV) specification, and a new collaboration with the SONiC Project now at the Linux Foundation. "Hardware“software co-design focuses on software that requires intimate knowledge of the hardware to drive maximum hardware performance, and speed time-to-market for hardware where system performance and ecological footprint can be highly dependent on software and hardware interactions. As part of the OCP's new hardware–software co-design strategy we are pleased to have new contributions from Microsoft and Intel and continue our collaboration with the SONiC Project at the Linux Foundation," said George Tchaparian, CEO Open Compute Project Foundation. Hardware-software co-design takes on new importance as software workloads become more diverse requiring specialized silicon to deliver top performance at an acceptable energy and ecological cost. System software, or firmware, will need to be designed using knowledge of the underlying hardware architecture to make appropriate engineering trade-offs along the cost vs performance curve enabling greener software. The recent contribution of Microsoft and Intel of the Scalable I/O Virtualization specification is an important example of OCP's hardware-software co-design strategy where SIOV provides a hardware and software architecture for mass-scale virtualization of I/O. This specification is an evolution of SR-IOV (single root input output virtualization) removing scaling limitations, enabling 100's and 1,000's of VMs (virtual machines) or software containers to dynamically share a pool of I/O devices meeting the requirements of today's modern cloud native software. The OCP intends to grow a healthy community around SIOV becoming a catalyst to spark innovation in silicon and cloud architectures. Collaboration between the OCP and the Linux Foundation expands to include the SONiC Project. In alignment with hardware-software co-design, collaboration continues around the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) project remaining at OCP and SONiC now at the Linux Foundation. The OCP is pleased that this collaboration allows the OCP to benefit from larger acceptance of SONiC by the Linux Foundation software development community, creating pull for OCP recognized switch hardware, opening new market verticals for OCP recognized equipment. While SONiC is the OS of choice for many hyperscale data center operators, other market segments need specialized features and SAI will enable the market to choose the switch OS best suited to its use cases. "The market for Data Center Infrastructure continues to evolve with increased silicon diversity prompted by adoption of AI and ML workloads. This diversity is reshaping the market which is under pressure to deliver the high-performance computational infrastructure that also manages its power and ecological footprint. These combinations of requirements make hardware-software co-design an imperative." said Ashish Nadkarni, Group Vice President, Infrastructure Systems, Worldwide Infrastructure at IDC. Support from Key Stakeholders Intel (SIOV) "Intel is committed to open standards as the fuel that that powers inclusive, innovative ecosystems," said Ronak Singhal, Senior Fellow and Chief Architect for Intel Xeon Roadmap & Technology at Intel. "By partnering with Open Compute Project to host the new Scalable I/O Virtualization (SIOV) specification, the whole CPU and PCIe device ecosystem can accelerate adoption of more scalable, efficient and high-performance I/O virtualization for the hyperscale era." Microsoft (SONiC) "The open source SONiC Network Operating System is enabling rapid innovation across the network ecosystem, and it began with the definition of the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) at OCP. OCP and SONiC have contributed tremendously to each other's growth in the last several years. SONiC is now joining the Linux Foundation to expand the communities and industries it serves. The OCP & LF SONiC Foundation will continue to work closely together across hardware and SAI specifications as part of the OCP's hardware-software co-design strategy," said Dave Maltz, SONiC Foundation Board Member and Technical Fellow/CVP, Microsoft. Linux Foundation "The Linux Foundation is happy to welcome SONiC, a leader in open source data center NOS deployments, to our growing community of open networking projects and developer communities," said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge, and IoT, the Linux Foundation. "As we focus on the software component of SONiC, we look forward to partnering with the Open Compute Foundation (OCP) on aligning hardware and specifications such as SAI." About the Open Compute Project Foundation At the core of the open compute project (OCP) is its community of hyperscale data center operators, joined by telecom and colocation providers and enterprise IT users, working with vendors to develop open innovations that when embedded in product are deployed from the cloud to the edge. The OCP Foundation is responsible for fostering and serving the OCP community to meet the market and shape the future, taking hyperscale led innovations to everyone. Meeting the market is accomplished through open designs and best practices, and with data center facility and IT equipment embedding OCP community developed innovations for efficiency, at-scale operations, and sustainability. Shaping the future includes investing in strategic initiatives that prepares the IT ecosystem for major changes, such as AI & ML, optics, advanced cooling techniques, and composable silicon. https://news.webindia123.com/news/press_showdetailsPR.asp?id=1247824&cat=PRN

China’s growing economic woes and “strategic neutrality” in the war in Ukraine and coziness with Russia has led some investors to stay clear. But China still poses a problem for investors, companies and other countries that still look to China as a major engine of growth. Central to the problem is just how integrated China has become in the fortunes of companies and countriesan increasingly uncomfortable reality, especially as China overnight told Russia it would increase “strategic coordination” with the country even as the U.S. and allies increasingly ostracize Russia with sanctions for its actions in Ukraine. Continued angst over Beijing’s crackdowns on the technology sector, the country’s shift toward self-reliance and common prosperity, and economic damage from its zero-Covid policy had already made some investors jittery. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is prompting a big rethink of China, which could push emerging markets investors to other regions, the Institute of International Finance’s Robin Brooks wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. Latin America, for example, saw inflows of $10.8 billion in March while Chinese equities saw $6.3 billion in outflows and Chinese bonds logged $11.2 billion in outflows, according to the IIF. Beyond the geopolitical ramifications, China’s economy is still struggling and policy makers haven’t rolled out the type of stimulus that can steady the situation. Bank of America ’s economics team sees earnings growth headed to recession levels this year, much lower than consensus estimates for 15% earnings growth. While policy makers have stressed their ambitious economic growth target of 5.5% and tried to reassure investors last month with talk of stimulus and regulation winding down soon, BofA strategists wrote that regulatory scrutiny continues, and property developers are still finding it difficult to get funding yet the leaders have been reluctant to ease policy as they grapple with China’s debt load. Bank of America’s Asia-Pacific equity strategy team has been neutral on Chinese stocks seeing little reason to add to them—since Beijing ramped up its crackdown on the private sector in late 2020. They cited concerns that President Xi Jinping’s shift last year to focus on common prosperity and self-reliance could hamper profits and Chinese stocks. Xi’s zero-Covid policy has pushed key economic centers into lockdown, adding to the pain as it hobbles factory production and supply chains and further dents services. Companies are left to deal with potentially higher costs as the lockdowns gum up already disrupted supply chains, adding to logistics issues and parts shortages that translate into higher costs. While companies have not made major inroads in diversifying supply chains, despite the talk of doing so during the trade war and pandemic, the confluence of challenges in China could force companies to take a harder look at building some resilience into their supply chains—likely resulting in higher costs that dent profitability. Add in softer demand from China and the outlook for some Chinese stocks, as well as regional and global companies reliant on China, becomes murkier. In a note to clients, Pantheon Macroeconomics’ Chief China+ Economist Craig Botham writes that China’s economy is likely to slow further next month amid the lockdowns, and congested shipping traffic could disrupt Japan’s trade with other countries. Already, he notes, it contributed to a slowdown in Japanese exports in March. Bank of America’s strategists see China’s woes also impacting the outlook for Taiwanese and Japanese parts and OEM suppliers for smartphones and PCs. Add to that list: Japanese electronics companies—with China accounting for 40% of their factory automation sales; Asian chemical makers, and Australian infant formula companies. Weak demand lasting later into the year could also hurt smartphone and PC demand, adding to the pain for companies like Xiaomi (1810.Hong Kong), which is more concentrated in China.Though Taiwanese suppliers may be able to manage the short-term disruption since it’s currently low season for the industry, BofA strategists note that surging Covid cases in cities like Guangzhou, and the continued lockdown in Shanghai suggest higher operation costs from labor and logistics and lowered utilization rates are likely inevitable. In a screen of Asia-Pacific companies that generate more than 10% of sales from China, materials companies like BHP Group (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) topped the list, getting more than half their revenue from China. But more vulnerable companies may include those like Japan’s Fanuc (6954.Japan) and Nippon Paint Holdings (4612.Japan), and Korea’s SK Hynix (660.Korea) and Taiwanese plastics companies like Nan Ya Plastics (1303.Taiwan) and Formosa Plastics (1301.Taiwan)—all of which get a third or more of revenue from China. https://www.barrons.com/articles/healthcare-stock-picks-dividends-51650468547

On April 8, the H-T published an article announcing that the Shalom Community Center will soon be closing on the weekends. The online version received several comments, all of which either celebrated the closing, ridiculed the work that Shalom does, or characterized Shalom’s guests as nothing but criminals and troublemakers. I’m both a volunteer at Shalom and someone who’s used Shalom’s services in the past, as I was recently homeless myself. The weekend closings are nothing to be celebrated, and the work we do can be lifesaving. I invite anyone to explain how providing meals, showers, and a laundry facility to those in desperate need is enabling? I invite anyone to explain how reducing hours at one of the only safe spaces a homeless person can spend their day is good? And finally, I implore all H-T readers to afford those who are homeless some humanity and respect. Sure, some of us have resorted to crime out of necessity, but many of you would do the same in similar circumstances. I have. But our mistakes do not define us, and we are much more than just criminals. We are people, too. We’re just people who have much less than you. https://news.yahoo.com/letter-shalom-cutback-not-good-114603722.html

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Removing @Mr.Bada From the Team VGR. Reason: Mr.Love's decision I will miss u here...