Los Angeles-To-Las Vegas High-Speed Train Wins $200 Million Nevada Bond Allocation | Forbes

July 29, 2020July 27, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

XpressWest, a high-speed rail line that will connect Southern California to Las Vegas, won $200 million of private activity bonds from Nevada, a critical final public allocation that allows the company owned by Wall Street investor Wes Edens to raise an additional $800 million for the project.

The Nevada State Board of Finance’s approval for the project, a unit of Edens’ Florida-based Brightline passenger rail service, comes after California awarded it $600 million of private activity bonds in April. XpressWest can sell four times the value of the awards as tax-exempt bonds to private investors, meaning it’s now lined up $3.2 billion of funding from the two states. Including a $1 billion U.S. Department of Transportation allocation in March, XpressWest has lined up $4.2 billion of the 170-mile rail line’s total $5 billion construction cost.

Disney Delays Star Wars, Avatar Releases, Takes Mulan Off Schedule | Digital Trends

July 24, 2020July 23, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The coronavirus has shaken up Disney’s biggest franchises — and Star Wars is the latest to be affected.

Disney announced Thursday it would push back the releases of the next set of Star Wars movies as well as James Cameron’s Avatar sequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The live-action Mulan remake, which was originally supposed to release in March, has also been taken off its theatrical release calendar.

“Over the last few months, it’s become clear that nothing can be set in stone when it comes to how we release films during this global health crisis, and today that means pausing our release plans for Mulan as we assess how we can most effectively bring this film to audiences around the world,” a Disney spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.

Coronavirus: The great contact-tracing apps mystery | BBC News

July 23, 2020July 22, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Germany and Ireland have both trumpeted their success in rolling out contact-tracing apps.

But is there any evidence that they are doing what they are designed to do – warning people they could be infected with the virus?

Not yet – and the privacy-conscious way in which they are designed could mean we will never know how effective they have been.

Elon Musk is one board approval away from another $2.1 billion in stock options | TechCrunch

July 22, 2020July 21, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tesla’s six-month average trailing market capitalization hit $150 billion on Tuesday after a four-month run up of the automaker’s share price that theoretically unlocks a multi-billion-dollar vesting option for CEO Elon Musk.

Once Tesla hit the six-month average trailing market cap of $150 billion, which Reuters first reported, Musk became eligible to access the second of 12 levels of options granted to him in an unprecedented pay package approved by shareholders in 2018. The board must still certify the milestone before the vesting option is triggered.

The milestone was met the day before Tesla is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Back to school or back to square one? | CNN

July 17, 2020July 15, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Even though the heat of mid-summer is still upon us and the coronvirus pandemic continues, back-to-school season is right around the corner. With the possible exception of mask-wearing, no topic is generating as much debate as the reopening of schools.

Everyone — leaders at all levels of government, public health experts, child welfare advocates, pediatricians, parents and teachers — has an opinion. As a doctor, a journalist and, perhaps most importantly, as a parent to three school-age children, it may come as no surprise that I’ve been thinking about this, too.

Google Accused Of Tracking App Users Who Opted Out | Digital Trends

July 16, 2020July 14, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A class-action lawsuit filed on Tuesday accuses Google of tracking user activity through various mobile apps — even if people opted out of sharing their data.

The suit was filed against the tech giant on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, as first reported by Reuters. The complaint accuses Google of logging users’ news apps, ride-sharing apps, and other types of apps even if people had the tracking turned off in their account settings.

Brexit: Get ready because this time it’s for real | BBC News

July 15, 2020July 13, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The government has warned that the outcome of ongoing Brexit negotiations will not alter significant changes to trade with EU that business needs to prepare for.

“Customs declarations are complicated”: That’s according to page 8 of a 208-page government guide to importing and exporting after the transition period ends at the end of this year.

The document is dense, detailed and presents a daunting checklist for firms looking to be prepared for the biggest change to doing business with our largest and closest partner.

Some Companies Can’t Hire Fast Enough. Study Their Business Models | Inc.com

July 15, 2020July 13, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

While many businesses–and, yes, entire industries even–have suffered as a result of the Coronavirus crisis, some companies have managed to thrive in this moment.

Based on an informal poll I conducted among HR people and other interested professionals, here’s a small sampling of some of the industries that can’t hire people fast enough:

Startups Weekly: The world is eating tech | TechCrunch

July 14, 2020July 12, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You could almost hear the internet cracking apart this week as international businesses pulled away from Hong Kong and the US considered a ban on TikTok. Software can no longer eat the entire world like it had attempted last decade. Startups across tech-focused industries face a new reality, where local markets and efforts are more protected and supported by national governments. Every company now has a smaller total addressable market, whether or not it succeeds in it.

Gensler upcycles an old warehouse into creative offices in Austin | Inhabitat

July 10, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

At the heart of East Austin, an old and uninviting warehouse has been transformed into a creative office building fittingly dubbed UPCycle after its site-sensitive design approach that includes the reuse of the entire building. Gensler led the renovation and updated the space with an additional 16,000 square feet of mezzanine area as well as energy-efficient improvements including new insulation and high-efficiency mechanical systems. The industrial character of the original building has been retained and celebrated as part of an overarching goal to preserve a piece of East Austin history.