MaxRedline

Onions Ain't Easy

A new rail shipping center is expected to be constructed and will function via a partnership between onion shippers, Malheur County, Americold, and Union Pacific Railroad. However, some officials were under the impression that dirt would be moving by now, and the delay has onion suppliers wondering if they will be able to ship the next harvest from the new location.

They're a big crop in Oregon, but shipping them out has long been problematic.  The planned rail center there should speed the logistics up - but only if they can get the darned thing built and running smoothly. That's always been a problem for farmers in the arid lands around Malheur County, and one that isn't going away soon enough for the cash-strapped area. We'll just have to see how the project ultimately pans out for them; the area's got a lot of history behind it. Pretty part of the state, but nothing's ever come easy out there.

Malheur's a very large county; its name, however, is French for "bad water".

 

Having Solved All Other Issues In California...

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that the state will ban sales of gas-powered vehicles, effective in 2035. Newsom said that the “audacious” goal was necessary to achieve the state’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045.

Well, they voted the idiot into orifice, so they get to deal with the results. That's why they have blackouts on a regular basis: believe it or not, the sun doesn't always shine down there, nor does the wind always blow. And if you want 100% "renewable" energy, you can't have backups like coal or natural gas-fired power plants. Their problem, fortunately.

It'll be interesting to see how banning internal-combustion engines works out in terms of market realities; they'll probably have to haul goods to and from their border by jitney or something - they might use ropes rolling platforms across logs, but no, they can't because logs are trees, and trees can't be cut. Maybe they can come up with a soy substitute.

 

Seattle In The Rearview Mirror

Tech giant Amazon is slowly abandoning Seattle. The company will not renew its lease for the top eight floors of an office building in South Lake Union. The space reportedly totals over 180,000 square feet. They’re heading for Bellevue, another upscale city across Lake Washington from Seattle.

Amazon, which leases over six million square feet of office space in Seattle, will bring another 10,000 jobs to Bellevue, in addition to the 15,000 previously announced jobs. These aren’t just new jobs. An Amazon source says the plan includes moving Seattle jobs to Bellevue.

So what's the motivation behind this move?

Seattle city council's new payroll tax - on top of all of the other taxes the company pays. And this isn't really all that slow a move: they plan to be out of Seattle in December. The Seattle city council managed to bite themselves well and truly in their collective butts with this move, as it's going to cost them a lot of revenue.

As they'll soon discover, actions have consequences.

 

Beer: Is There Anything It Can't Do?

So far, it seems pretty effective:

Every week, Darwin Brewing Company in Bradenton needs to get rid of thousands of pounds of soggy barley.

Known as spent grain, the cracked kernels are a byproduct of making beer, each a little bigger than a grain of rice. Usually, farmers haul off totes of the grain for their livestock to eat, said Blue Hellenga, Darwin’s head brewer. But more recently, some of it has gone to a new destination at the nearby Mote Marine Lab.

Researchers there are trying to find ways to thwart Red Tide, a scourge for Florida’s Gulf Coast. They believe the used grains could hold an answer in molecules that stunt algal blooms. Red Tide kills fish in droves and forces sunbathers off the beach. Besides the putrid smell, it causes breathing problems.

So Mote researchers discovered that enzymes remaining in the spent barley stops the organism behind red tide, if delivered in time - before the bloom really gets underway. Seems like a big win for brewers and for Florida tourism.

 

Unfortunately, These Aren't Exactly "Good Times"

Mom-and-pop landlords across the United States are coming under increasing pressure as a patchwork of regulations and eviction moratoriums passed by the federal government, states, counties, and municipalities in the wake of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus crisis have strongly curtailed their ability to enforce their property rights. Some landlords’ associations have resorted to legal action (pdf) to challenge the moratoriums, as many are currently unable to evict tenants breaking the terms of their lease agreement, such as those causing a nuisance to their neighbors—unless those tenants pose a danger to public health.

“With the moratorium in place, property owners have no ability to enforce anything in their leases,” Garvey claimed. “If tenants are causing a nightmare for other residents, or neighbors, there is nothing the owner can do about it. If they are tearing up the place, same thing.”

“In good times, approximately 9¢ of each dollar in rent is available as income to the owner of a well operated property,” Garvey says.

These are bad times to be a landlord in many places, as tenants are sometimes gaming the system to the financial detriment of landlords.

 

Bad News For PDX Workers

An airline food service provider is cutting 193 jobs in Portland as a result of the downturn in air travel during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sky Chefs Inc. filed notice with the state Friday that it planned to end the workers' jobs starting Oct. 1. United Airlines recently said it would furlough up to 119 workers at the airport, and Powell's books announced that it had permanently closed its airport locations.

I live under one of the main flight paths between Portland and California, and it hasn't been this quiet since 9/11. Should be easy to find a parking place around PDX, though.

 

The Fun Never Stops In Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. — 

Oregon’s attorney general is seeking an order to stop militarized federal agents from arresting people in Portland as the city continues to be convulsed by nightly protests that have gone on for seven weeks and have now pitted local officials against the Trump administration. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum late Friday sued Homeland Security and the Marshals Service in federal court. The complaint says that unidentified federal agents have grabbed people off Portland’s streets “without warning or explanation, without a warrant, and without providing any way to determine who is directing this action.”

Offhand, Ellen, I'd say the rioters who've caused millions of dollars in damage are directing the action.

Of course, the do-nothing "mayor" and other "officials" here enable the rioters.

So we need some adults in the place.

 

Lot Of Jobs Going Away

JC Penney says it will close an additional 152 stores and cut 1,000 jobs as it tries to fight its way out from under bankruptcy protection. The company last month said it had identified 154 stores for closure in the first phase of a restructuring in which it will become a smaller operator. As part of its bankruptcy reorganization, Penney has said it plans to permanently close nearly a third of its 846 stores in the next two years. That would leave it with just over 600 locations.

That's going to hurt a lot of people. If I recall correctly new unemployment claims have topped a million in each of the past 17 weeks. Oddly, the stock markets seem to be doing well overall, even in the face of the unemployment disasters.

 

 

Food Or Rent?

As the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic continues, almost one-third of U.S. households, 32%, have not made their full housing payments for July yet, according to a survey by Apartment List, an online rental platform.

That’s the fourth month in a row that a “historically high” number of households were unable to pay their housing bill on time and in full, up from 30% in June and 31% in May. Renters, low-income and younger households were most likely to miss their payments, Apartment List found.

Renters are especially vulnerable. About 36% of renters, who are more likely to work in industries devastated by the coronavirus, missed their July housing bill, compared to 30% of homeowners.

This was discussed here the other day; it's something that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

 

 

What Do You Do With 20 Million Evicted Renters?

Mass evictions would be a disaster. For both individuals and families, evictions result in severe harm; when they become widespread, there are also significant consequences for entire communities and even the speed of economic recovery. Policymakers are actively seeking solutions, but it is difficult to prepare without knowing the size of the problem.

The COVID-19 Eviction Defense Project (CEDP) was formed to solve that problem. It is a coalition of economic researchers and legal experts who developed a model to estimate eviction risk nationally and at the state level. The disturbing result: 19 to 23 million, or one in five of the 110 million Americans who live in renter households, are at risk of eviction by September 30, 2020.

It doesn't help that some 25% of renters are spending more than half of their incomes on rent and utilities. That doesn't leave much wiggle-room for groceries, transportation, medical expenses, etc.

 

 

Socialist Paradise

After seven years of economic collapse, Venezuela’s crisis has entered a troubling new phase. In a nation that’s home to the world’s largest oil reserves, fuel shortages have grown so acute that fields are going bare. Venezuela is now on the verge of famine, the International Crisis Group warns. 

Evidence of fuel scarcity is everywhere. Ambulances can’t run, telecommunications networks are faltering and some farmers have given up altogether on machinery -- using oxen instead.

Their currency is essentially worthless, and those fortunate enough to live near the border with Colombia have found that fuel there costs around 15 Venezuela dollars per gallon. One result:

Venezuelan food inflation reached 251% in the first four months of the year, according to Caracas research group Cenda.

They may sit atop the world's largest oil areas, but they can't produce fuel from it; much less fertilizers. They lack the technological capacity and the required skills.

The fact is, they lost their talent. They no longer have the expertise to produce distillates on an efficient scale. I feel for people but this is the result of socialism. If their government were in charge of the desert there would soon be a shortage of sand. But then, it's what the people wanted - and they got it. Maybe the kiddies in Seattle should migrate to their socialist heaven.