Americans borrowed record $1.61 trillion to buy homes in 2021

Sat, January 1, 2022


Mortgage lenders issued $1.61 trillion in purchase loans in 2021, up from $1.48 trillion in loans issued in 2020 and marking the highest mortgage borrowing numbers ever recorded.

THE BOOM BEFORE THE 2007-2008 BUST
The 2021 figures exceeded a previous record set in 2005, when $1.51 trillion in loans were issued, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The record-setting numbers reflect a red-hot housing market. At the beginning of the pandemic, people were drawn to the market with low interest rates and desire to have more space at home - desires that continue to drive up house prices, the Journal noted.

Home prices went up by 18.4 percent in October, marking a slight drop from when home prices were up by 19.1 percent in September.

But with a strong labor market, Americans who have obtained pay raises or saved during the pandemic are potentially prepared to step into the housing market despite the soaring costs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that wages for all private-sector workers increased by 4.6 percent year over year in the third quarter, the Journal noted.

"All of that extra income goes somewhere, and a lot of it went into housing," Taylor Marr, deputy chief economist at Redfin Corp., a real-estate brokerage, told the newspaper.

Can a future ban on gas-powered cars work? An economist explains

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology
Sat, January 1, 2022

A 'green' symbol for electric vehicle charging stations. Photo by Michael Marais for Unsplash, CC BY-ND

The U.S. transportation sector is one of the largest contributors of carbon dioxide, the potent driver of climate change.

Transportation accounts for about 28% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and, since 1990, emissions in this sector have increased more than in any other area.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging the use of electric vehicles promises to be an effective strategy to address climate change. That’s because the electric grid is powered by diverse sources, including an increasing amount of renewable energy such as wind and solar.

But with more than 270 million motor vehicles registered in the U.S. and a long tradition of powering cars and trucks with fossil fuels, how will it be possible to make this switch?

In 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that after 2035, sales of gas-powered vehicles would be banned in California, a state where more than 50% of greenhouse emissions are generated by transportation. This ban includes gas-electric hybrid vehicles and, more generally, any vehicle with tailpipe emissions.

The governor’s executive order leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Will the proposed ban so far into the future have teeth? What will it actually accomplish if it becomes policy? Can it set the tone for the rest of the country and open the floodgates to a green transportation future?

Multiple cars traveling on a sunny boulevard.

In 2018, electric vehicles comprised nearly 2% of the U.S. market and nearly 8% in California. A ban on the sale of gas-powered cars in California could pave the way for an expansion of electric vehicle purchases and kick into high gear electric vehicle manufacturing and construction of charging stations. Yet this ban, intended to signal and spark decisive change, entails a certain amount of risk.
The implied ‘or else’ of a ban

A politician like Gavin Newsom may use a ban as a strategy because it sounds radical and harsh and implies or creates an ultimatum. By appearing to be tough on polluters, Newsom’s strategy may appeal to voters, particularly in environmentally conscious California.

In the case of climate change, a ban can be useful because, unlike a carbon tax, a ban at a future date doesn’t impose clear costs on consumers today. And, unlike subsidies designed to encourage the use of electric vehicles, bans don’t rely on federal support and, in that way, can be seen as fiscally conservative.

While measures like bans are not supported generally by economists, new research demonstrates that under some circumstances, a ban may make economic sense. For instance, one ban that has generally worked is on the sale and distribution of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the United States.

In this case, the circumstances depend on the extent to which electric vehicles can replace and are good substitutes for gas-powered vehicles.

If electric vehicles were perfect substitutes for conventional vehicles – the same price and offering equal or better performance – then the market would drive the creation of a nearly fully electric vehicle fleet. It would not be necessary for governments to put a policy into place to prompt people to buy and drive electric vehicles.

On the other hand, if electric vehicles are not substitutes for gas-powered vehicles, then it would be expensive for a government to push consumers to buy electric vehicles.

Illustration of an old Esso gas station.

To a policymaker interested in combating climate change, effective regulatory measures may include putting a price on carbon emissions – rather than enacting a ban – to encourage the market to move toward a future of all-electric vehicles. A carbon tax, which sets a price that emitters must pay for each ton of greenhouse gases they emit, would push the market toward electric vehicles. Currently, 25 countries around the world have a national carbon tax, including Canada, South Africa and Sweden. Emitters want to reduce their emissions to avoid paying the tax. California has a program that caps carbon emissions that similarly raises the cost of emissions.

That said, a carbon tax may be hard to implement in the U.S. because of voter resistance to paying more taxes; voters paying little attention to the benefits of a carbon tax, such as refunds for not emitting a lot; and the existence of a well-organized and -funded opposition. The next best option, then, may be to use a ban rather than a tax.
Impediments to an EV future

With improvements in battery technology in the past decade, electric vehicles are becoming better substitutes for conventional vehicles.

A symbol of an electric car with plug trailing behind.

With more charging stations in place, auto manufacturers may find that it makes good business sense to shift more of their research and development to electric vehicle production. With less “range anxiety” over the distance between charging stations, consumers may be more likely to make the electric vehicle purchase decisions that policymakers would like them to make.

Moving away from fossil fuels to electricity may require a radical and risky action like a ban. While not ideal or necessarily even the first best policy instrument to achieve this objective, bans can be powerful change agents for consumers and the private sector.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Amitrajeet A. Batabyal, Rochester Institute of Technology.

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Florida history: German prisoners of war – the enemy in our midst

Eliot Kleinberg

Palm Beach Daily News
Sun, January 2, 2022

On June 6, 1944, a Miami newspaper reporter took a ride up the south shore of Lake Okeechobee. Overnight, the long-anticipated and historic invasion of Europe had begun. Editors wanted local reaction from Germans. German Germans. Some were not too far away.

In May 1943, Allied forces had begun shipping to the United States Germans captured in combat. More than 9,000 went to 22 Florida camps, many at or near military bases. State headquarters was at North Florida’s Camp Blanding, also an active POW facility. It now is a National Guard training base.

German POWs were confident about war effort in Europe

At Liberty Point, Germans who were put to work performing the backbreaking work of planting and harvesting sugar cane told the reporter that, yes, they had heard of the invasion, on radios. They said it all was propaganda. Germany, they said, surely would prevail.

Forgotten history: Milton’s German Prisoner Of War Camp

U-Boat War: Germany brought WWII to the Florida coast in 1942

Florida in World War II: After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Florida became a vital resource to the nation

While the prisoners appeared cocky, their home in the Glades was no winter vacation. If there was a perfect hell for fair-skinned people from chilly northern Europe, this was it. When the American Red Cross inspected Liberty Point in March 1945, it found the temperature at 103 degrees; dust aggravated by six months without rain settled on everything. The Red Cross cited the camp for having only 12 latrines for 293 prisoners; only two had seats. Americans found it hard to feel sympathy. Compared to what was going on in Europe, including to American POWs, German POWs in Florida seemed to have it pretty good.

Prisoners at the various camps worked from before 8 a.m. to about 3 p.m. The military charged farmers the going rate for labor, but they were able to show a profit by paying prisoners 80 cents a day in coupons they traded for items such as cigarettes and beer.

Access to such treats led to a showdown with local distributors in early 1945. They halted supplies to Morrison Field, now Palm Beach International Airport, when they learned it was sharing them with the POWs.

A display of what Camp Blanding looked like during World War II at the Camp Blanding Museum during the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of Camp Blanding Joint Training Center near Starke, Florida, on Jan 9, 2015.

Barracks, which held six men each, had mosquito netting but no air conditioning. American camp guards ate the same food as POWs, in keeping with the Geneva Convention. The nearly 300 prisoners fished in nearby canals, saw films twice a week and assembled a concert band using instruments bought with money from their canteen fund. They took classes in bookkeeping, English, geometry and chemistry, and read American magazines and copies of the New York Staatszeitung or “state newspaper.”
Coddled in Florida, concentration camps in Germany

Sometimes the POWs pushed their luck. At the Belle Glade camp, when POWs held a two-day strike over a cut in cigarette rations, the American public, press and politicians angrily painted word pictures of coddled Germans whining over cigarettes at a time when GIs were stumbling across Nazi concentration camps.

One escapee got from North Florida all the way to the Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee. He was captured and returned to the camp scratched, bloody and filthy. The head of the POWs complained camp officers had beaten the man. No, the commander said, his scratches and cuts came from the Florida countryside.

Florida Time is a weekly column about Florida history by Eliot Kleinberg, a former staff writer for three decades at The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, and the author of 10 books about Florida (www.ekfla.com).

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida housed thousands of German POWs during World War II

A California school superintendent said she's been 'subjected to death threats on a daily basis' since launching an investigation into a photo of students posing with swastikas drawn on their bodies

Yelena Dzhanova
Sun, January 2, 2022

Godong/Getty Images

A California school superintendent said she's facing death threats after announcing an investigation into students posing with swastikas.

Nicole Newman said she saw a photo of Wheatland Union High School students with thick, black swastikas painted onto their torsos.

"This has been one of the most traumatizing experiences in my life and in the lives of my colleagues," she said.

A school superintendent from California said she's been "subjected to death threats on a daily basis" after launching an investigation into a photo showing a group of students posing with swastikas drawn on their bodies.

"This has been one of the most traumatizing experiences in my life and in the lives of my colleagues," said Wheatland Union High School District Superintendent Nicole Newman on in a video shared to Facebook on Thursday.

She and her colleagues have also received "threats that are aimed against our families," Newman added in the video.

The photo, showing eight white students with thick, black swastikas painted onto their torsos, went viral on social media. The students, some of whom are holding alcoholic beverages, appear to be at a house party. The students attend Wheatland Union High School, Newman confirmed.

"When I first saw them, I was profoundly disturbed and heartbroken. I knew just how much pain these images were going to cause our community," Newman said.

The students have been disciplined, according to the Sacramento Bee. But details of the consequences they are expected to face were not publicly shared for legal reasons.

Newman said the video message posted on Thursday would be the last public update on the case "as we cannot legally go into detail regarding the discipline of these students."

"There is no denying that, the choices made by the students in the picture were hurtful and deeply troubling. Their actions do not represent who we are as a school district and community," Newman said in a separate statement on December 23.

Newman said she'd reach out to elected officials and "key community stakeholders" to "begin the process of having a broader community conversation about how we can work together to prevent this type of issue from ever happening again."

THE PSYCHIC MELTDOWN OF THE USA
A Nation On Hold Wants to Speak With a Manager


Sarah Lyall

NEW YORK TIMES
Sat, January 1, 2022,

A nation on hold wants to speak with a manager. (Shira Inbar/The New York Times)

Nerves at the grocery store were already frayed, in the way of these things as the pandemic slouches toward its third year, when the customer arrived. He wanted Cambozola, a type of blue cheese. He had been cooped up for a long time. He scoured the dairy area; nothing. He flagged down an employee who also did not see the cheese. He demanded that she hunt in the back and look it up on the store computer. No luck.

And then he lost it, just another out-of-control member of the great chorus of American consumer outrage, 2021 style.

“Have you seen a man in his 60s have a full temper tantrum because we don’t have the expensive imported cheese he wants?” said the employee, Anna Luna, who described the mood at the store, in Minnesota, as “angry, confused and fearful.”

“You’re looking at someone and thinking, ‘I don’t think this is about the cheese.’”

It is a strange, uncertain moment, especially with omicron tearing through the country. Things feel broken. The pandemic seems like a Möbius strip of bad news. Companies keep postponing back-to-the-office dates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps changing its rules. Political discord has calcified into political hatred. And when people have to meet each other in transactional settings — in stores, on airplanes, over the phone on customer-service calls — they are, in the words of Luna, “devolving into children.”

Perhaps you have felt it yourself, your emotions at war with your better nature. A surge of anger when you enter your local pharmacy, suffering from COVID-y symptoms, only to find that it is out of thermometers, never mind antigen tests. A burst of annoyance at the elaborate rules around vaccine cards and IDs at restaurants — rules you yourself agree with! — because you have to wait outside, and it is cold, and you left your wallet in the car.

A feeling of nearly homicidal rage at the credit card company representative who has just informed you that, having failed to correctly answer the security questions, you have been locked out of your own account. (Note to self: Adopting a tone of haughty sarcasm is not a good way to solve this problem.)

“People are just — I hate to say it because there are a lot of really nice people — but when they’re mean, they’re a heck of a lot meaner,” said Sue Miller, who works in a nonprofit trade association in Madison, Wisconsin. “It’s like, instead of saying, ‘This really inconvenienced me,’ they say, ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ It’s a different scale of mean.”

The meanness of the public has forced many public-facing industries to rethink what used to be an article of faith: that the customer is always right. If employees are now having to take on many unexpected roles — therapist, cop, conflict-resolution negotiator — then workplace managers are acting as security guards and bouncers to protect their employees.

At a specialty grocery store in Traverse City, Michigan, a manager named Shea O’Brien was recently accused of being unable to read by a customer enraged that a kind of fish advertised as being discounted had sold out. In another instance, O’Brien said, a man who did not want to wear a mask verbally assailed another employee, interspersing personal insults with an impromptu soliloquy about liberty and tyranny until the employee began to cry.

“He kept shouting, ‘The governor said we no longer have to wear masks,’” O’Brien said. The woman’s response — that they were still required in places with a certain number of workers — only made him angrier.

Finally, the owner arrived and “told the customer never to return,” O’Brien said.

It’s not just your imagination; behavior really is worse. In a study of 1,000 American adults during the pandemic, 48% of adults and 55% of workers said that in November 2020, they had expected that civility in America would improve after the election.

By August, the expectations of improvement had fallen to 30% overall and 37% among workers. Overall, only 39% of the respondents said they believed that America’s tone was civil. The study also found that people who didn’t have to work with customers were happier than those who did.

“There’s a growing delta between office workers and those that are interacting with consumers,” said Micho Spring, chair of the global corporate practice for the strategic communications company Weber Shandwick, which helped conduct the study.

At the same time, many consumers are rightly aggrieved at what they view as poor service at companies that conduct much of their business online — retailers, cable operators, rental car companies and the like — and that seem almost gleefully interested in preventing customers from talking to actual people.

“The pandemic has given many companies license to reduce their focus on the quality of the experience they’re delivering to the customer,” said Jon Picoult, founder of Watermark Consulting, a customer service advisory firm.

In part, the problem is the disconnect between expectation and reality, said Melissa Swift, U.S. transformation leader at the consulting firm Mercer. Before the pandemic, she said, consumers had been seduced into the idea of the “frictionless economy” — the notion that you could get whatever you wanted, the moment you wanted it.

That is not happening.

“There’s a lack of outlets for people’s anger,” Swift said. “That waiter, that flight attendant — they become a stand-in for everything coming between what we experience and what we think we are entitled to.”

How do you measure rage? For many years, Scott M. Broetzmann, now president and CEO of a consulting firm called Customer Care Measurement and Consulting, has been conducting studies of consumer anger. The next iteration is set to come out this spring. He almost can’t believe what he has seen during the pandemic.

“When we founded the study, I never thought that the environment would be like it was today,” he said. “I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined that we would be seeing people fighting on planes and beating each other up.” Last spring, he said, his early-morning flight from Washington to Phoenix was delayed for 45 minutes while a drama over a man and a mask played out in the back. The final scene: The man was escorted off in disgrace.

That seems like child’s play, compared to what else is going on in the skies. In the COVID era, airplanes have become fertile landscapes for fights about rules that are really metaphors for other things. This is where mask mandates meet never-maskers and where weary, combative consumers meet exhausted, fed-up (and more and more overworked, because so many people are sick) employees.

In 2021, there were 5,779 reports of unruly passengers on planes, more than 4,000 of them related to mask mandates, the Federal Aviation Administration reported. The stories keep coming: of passengers knocking out flight attendants’ teeth; of flight attendants subduing passengers with duct tape; of people brawling about masks, seat belts, no-alcohol policies, the lack of normal meal service — you name it.

Recently, a woman on a Delta flight from Tampa, Florida, to Atlanta hit and spat at another passenger in an incident that began when she refused to accede to the flight attendant’s request to sit down while the beverage cart was in the aisle. When the woman was invited to find an open seat for a few minutes, she asked, “What am I, Rosa Parks?” according to the ensuing criminal complaint.

Flight attendants say that enforcing rules — not just over masks, but over seat belts and sitting down during takeoff and landing — is perhaps the most wearying part of their job.

“It’s mentally exhausting to have to police adults over this matter,” wrote Adam Mosley, a 51-year-old flight attendant, responding to a request by The New York Times to describe conditions in the service industry at this odd juncture.

“There is definitely a subset of people that don’t seem to think that any of the rules apply to them,” he said. Recently, an angry woman confronted him and another flight attendant in the galley, backing them into a corner while she argued that she had a right to talk to her children without wearing a mask.

It’s not all grim, he said. Some passengers go out of their way to thank him, just as some customers have taken to leaving huge tips in restaurants. Others have been bringing him and his colleagues little gifts, like chocolate.

“I think there was enough media attention over poorly behaved passengers that some people feel bad,” Mosley said.

Airplanes are the scenes of the most obvious instances of consumer rage, along with restaurants, where customers regularly express their annoyance at staffing shortages, higher prices, vaccination mandates and other pandemic-centric problems. But most of the bad consumer behavior is low-grade — a persistent hum of incivility rather than an explosion of violence.

“Customers have been superaggressive and impatient lately,” said Annabelle Cardona, who works in a Lowell, Massachusetts, branch of a national chain of home-improvement stores. Recently, she found herself in a straight-up screaming match with a customer who called her lazy and incompetent after she told him that he needed to measure his windows before she could provide the right size shades.

Such interactions used to make her weep. “But I’ve been calloused by it,” she said. “Now, instead of crying, I’m just really pessimistic and judgmental against the people around me.”

From across the country, workers responded with similar stories: of customers flying off the handle when the products they wanted were unavailable; of customers blaming the store, rather than supply-chain disruptions, for delays; of customers demanding refunds on nonrefundable items; of customers so wound up with worry and anxiety that the smallest thing sends them into a tailspin of hysteria.

In Chicago, a customer service agent for Patagonia described how a young woman became inconsolable when told that her package would be late. Another customer accused him of lying and participating in a scam to defraud customers upon learning that the out-of-stock fleece vest he had back-ordered would be further delayed by supply-chain issues.

In Colorado, Maribeth Ashburn, who works for a jewelry store, said that she was weary of being “the mask police.”

“Customers will scream at you, throw things and walk out of the store,” she said.

The worst, she said, is the political commentary. Once a customer went into a diatribe against Dr. Anthony Fauci, saying she had it on good authority that he was about to be jailed for his “crimes.” Others have called Ashburn a “sheep” and a “fraidy-cat” for wearing a mask.

Her go-to response — looking noncommittal and murmuring “hmm” — seems to make matters worse. “I am very discouraged at the polarization and at the unkind way that people treat each other,” she said.

Miller, from the Wisconsin trade association, said the pressures of the pandemic and the deterioration of elected officials’ behavior — the shouting, the threats, the hatred — had given normal people license to act out, too. With her customers, she tries to remain calm, address their problems and take solace in whatever crumbs of civility they offer.

“I’m not expecting people to be nice,” she said. “They don’t have to wish me a good day. They can say, ‘Hi, I’d like to buy this,’ and then ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye.’ I’d be very happy with that.”

© 2021 The New York Times Company

AT&T and Verizon reject US call to delay 5G expansions over interference


Jon Fingas
·Weekend Editor
Sun, January 2, 2022

AT&T and Verizon aren't delaying their 5G expansions any further after all. Bloomberg notes the two carriers' CEOs have issued a joint letter rejecting a request from the FAA and Transportation Department to stall their C-band service rollouts beyond January 5th to address concerns of interference with aircraft systems. The companies argued that the government's proposed plan would effectively give oversight of the network expansions to the FAA for an "undetermined number of months or years," and wouldn't cover rivals like T-Mobile.

The move would represent an "irresponsible abdication" of network control, the CEOs said. They also believed honoring the request would be to the "detriment" of customers.

Instead, AT&T and Verizon tried to negotiate a compromise. They vowed not to deploy C-band 5G towers near some airports for six months, but only so long as the aviation industry and regulators didn't do more to halt C-band deployments. American transportation agencies had asked on December 31st for a general delay no longer than two weeks, but called for a gradual deployment of service near "priority" airports through March to safeguard important runways.

It's not clear how the FAA and Transportation Department will respond. The rejection isn't shocking, mind you. C-band service promises to deliver more of the long-touted speed advantages of 5G without the short range and poor indoor service of millimeter wave technology. It could also add capacity to keep 5G networks running smoothly as more users upgrade their devices. However, officials and the aviation industry have a lot to lose as well —they're worried C-band 5G could disrupt flights and put passengers at risk. You might not see either side capitulate quickly.

Kentucky shelter working to locate pet owners post-tornado



Alyssa Thorpe, left, and Marlee Burden hold their children while Halyn McKnight, right, searches for possessions with her mother Jennifer Burden in her destroyed home, in the aftermath of tornadoes that tore through the region, in Dawson Springs, Ky., Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021. 

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Sat, January 1, 2022, 

DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky animal shelter has been doing its part to help with recovery from last month's tornadoes by reuniting pets lost in the storm with their owners.

The Hopkins County Animal shelter has taken in about 90 dogs and about 120 cats from the hard-hit community of Dawson Springs since Dec. 11, The Messenger reported. Shelter Executive Director Dustin Potenzas told the paper on Tuesday there were about 36 dogs left to be claimed and about 50 cats left.

All of the pets found in Dawson Springs will be kept for 35 days before being put up for adoption. If an owner can't house their pet because their home was damaged or lost, the shelter can sign a 15-day contract to board the pets there.

“As long as the owner stays in contact with us and renews that 15-day contract, then we will hold those animals as long as we need to,” Potenza said.

The shelter is still getting animals from Dawson Springs more than two weeks after the tornadoes. Most of those coming in are cats, and Potenza said it can be hard to know if they are strays or pets. Only two of the rescued pets had microchips, which allowed the shelter to reunite them with their owners immediately.

For the other pets rescued, shelter volunteers are showing photos and talking to neighbors in the areas the animals were found to try to locate their owners. To reclaim a pet, the owner must show proof of ownership through veterinary records or photos.

“At a time like this when some have lost all, we still need to make sure we have that proof to make sure we are getting the animals to their rightful owners,” Potenza said. “That is the only fair way for us to do that.”

BOJO'S BEAUX

UK
Carrie Johnson-backed animal welfare group seeks trail-hunting ban in move that may anger rural Tories

Helena Horton
Sat, January 1, 2022

Carrie Johnson seen holding her dog - AFP

An animal welfare group supported by the PM's wife Carrie has called for a ban on trail hunting in a move that risks angering rural Tories.

MPs, who are part of the influential Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF), are in January putting forward an amendment to the Animal Welfare Bill that would ban the laying of real animal scents, after evidence foxes were killed by accident on Boxing Day hunts this year.

Under proposed new legislation, those who lay the scent of real animals for hounds to follow would potentially be jailed.

Mrs Johnson has always been a vocal opponent of fox hunting, and previously said: "I am against fox hunting. Always have been. I even campaigned against it when I was much younger by dressing up as a fox. That’s why I’m a patron of Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation."

The proposed new legislation is likely to cause irritation to many senior Conservatives. Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg's family enjoyed a day out on a trail hunt with the Mendip Farmers' Hunt this year, and many in rural constituencies get involved in the traditional country pursuit.

However, Sir Roger Gale, who along with Mrs Johnson is a member of CAWF, argues that current laws on hunting do not go far enough and put foxes at risk of being torn apart by hounds.

A New Year's Day meet in the Scottish Borders - Charlotte Graham

He said: "Trail hunting has developed into a new recreational activity, which if done correctly should cause no harm to any fox or wild mammal. But `accidents` seem to happen time and time again; harm is caused to wildlife, and the law broken.

"There is no logical reason for the recreational sport of trail hunting to continue to use animal-based scents if the hunt seriously and genuinely wishes to avoid accidentally chasing or killing a fox."

He argued that training hounds to follow the scent of wild animals causes them to chase after mammals while on a hunt, and inevitably some die.

"For seventeen years generations of working hounds have been trained to follow the scent of a fox. Totally illogical. In simple terms, if you don’t want hounds to chase a fox, don’t use something that smells of a fox.

"So to protect wild mammals, and to preserve and protect the sport of trail hunting in its chase and kill-free form, I have laid amendments to the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, currently at Report Stage in Commons. My amendment calls for the intentional or reckless participation in laying or following an animal-based scent for hunting activities to become an offence, liable to a fine, imprisonment, or both."

Foxhounds in their kennels before a hunt - Chris Strickland

Co-sponsors of his bill include Conservative MPs Tracey Crouch, who is a great friend of Mrs Johnson, and Henry Smith.

Countryside groups have criticised the proposed legislation, arguing it would stop dogs from finding wounded deer in order for them to be dispatched humanely, and that hounds will always give chase, whether or not they are trained to follow a scent.

Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance said: “This proposal only reveals the confusion and lack of understanding of its proponents. It would do nothing to stop the few unfortunate cases where hounds do chase mammals. As any dog owner knows the hunting gene is deeply embedded in canines and from poodles to fox hounds they will give chase when the opportunity appears.

"More than that it would outlaw the training of dogs to carry out important roles, most obviously to follow deer that have been injured in road traffic accidents and culling. The RSPCA estimates 200 deer are injured, but not killed, every week in road traffic accidents. The only way of finding and euthanising those deer is with dogs trained to follow animal scents. It is sad that a group that purports to be focused on animal welfare is so ignorant of the consequences of its proposals.”

Boom time for marijuana sales in Illinois, as industry expands with new products — but minority businesses get left behind

Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune
Sat, January 1, 2022,

While 2021 was a boom time for legal marijuana sales in Illinois, it was another wasted year for minority entrepreneurs trying to break into the business, and a mixed experience for customers.

Recreational cannabis retail sales continued to climb steadily this year, to more than $1.2 billion, roughly an 85% increase from 2020 through November of this year alone. The medical cannabis program reached 136,000 active patients, who spent another $362 million. The sales generated more than $300 million in tax revenue in fiscal year 2021 — more than from alcohol.

But after new applicants waited through more than a year of delays for business licenses, judges prevented them from opening dispensaries while litigation dragged on, with no solution in sight.

The year saw many new twists in the cannabis field. Sales took off for hemp-derived Delta-8 THC, called “weed light,” despite existing in a legal gray area. Huge multistate companies gobbled up independent dispensaries and expanded dramatically. In one constant, prices of marijuana in Illinois remained among the highest in the nation.

While cannabis remains illegal under federal law, proposals to decriminalize it or let banks finance it have been slowly gaining some support among lawmakers. The year also ushered in a vast array of new products and consumer trends. Here are a few reasons why 2021 was a great year for big cannabis operators in Illinois, but frustrating for newcomers.

Consolidation

Several cannabis companies founded and headquartered in Chicago have become among the largest operators in the nation, while out-of-state operators have come into Illinois, by opening new facilities or buying up competitors. Cresco Labs and Curaleaf each have grown to the maximum 10 retail sites in Illinois; PharmaCann has eight; Ascend Wellness, seven; Green Thumb Industries lists nine stores on its website; nuEra has six, and Zen Leaf operates 10.

Together, that means seven companies control 60 of the 110 weed stores in the state.

The number of growers is even more limited. A mere 18 companies are allowed to grow cannabis — compared with hundreds of companies that do so in Western states like Oregon or California, where they have the opposite problem of oversupply to the illegal market.

Licensed growers in Illinois say they support new entrants to the market by helping with the complicated application process, by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars each in state fees to help fund startups and for seed projects to help them get started. PharmaCann promised $600,000 to help fund scholarships and build Oakton Community College’s new cannabis cultivation laboratory. Cresco Labs created its new Illinois Cannabis Education Center in Chicago, which offers a mock dispensary and training facility for aspiring workers and owners.

By state law, there was supposed to be a slew of new businesses licensed last year, with favoritism toward poor, largely minority areas with high rates of cannabis arrests. But after a series of delays, applicants complained that consultant KPMG had scored applications unfairly, resulting in wealthy, white, politically connected winners.

To address the complaints and associated lawsuits, state lawmakers authorized 185 new dispensary licenses. But Cook County Judge Moshe Jacobius ordered that those licenses not be awarded while he wades through lawsuits challenging the process.

The state did award 40 new craft grower licenses plus infuser and transporter licenses, but Cook County Judge Neil Cohen forbade the issuance of up to 60 new craft grower licenses due this year, while the courts try to resolve litigation from applicants who were disqualified.

None of this slowed down the existing market. Companies that had been granted licenses to open medical marijuana dispensaries since 2015 were allowed to also sell recreational weed, and to expand to second locations. Because of its artificially constrained market, Illinois still has among the highest-priced weed in the country.

Wholesale flower prices reached nearly $4,000 per pound, analyst Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. estimated — three times the U.S. average pegged by price tracking company Cannabis Benchmarks. With customers paying $19 per gram for retail flower, Cantor Fitzgerald estimated average annual sales per store at nearly $17 million.
Moldy weed worries

A big part of the demand — $1 out of every $3 spent — is from out of state, since Illinois is surrounded by states that don’t allow recreational sales. Michigan does have adult use sales, but was hit by a large public recall of cannabis that had high levels of mold or other contaminants, with stores required to post notices alerting customers for a month after sales.

Illinois, in contrast, issued a recall and quarantine this year, but kept it quiet. In May, the state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation sent dispensaries notice of a voluntary recall of Verano’s Mag Landrace flower due to possible mold contamination. The department investigated the issue, but said it is prohibited by the state cannabis law from disclosing the results.

In addition, a former production supervisor for PharmaCann, William Sanford, filed suit claiming that he was fired for repeatedly reporting moldy cannabis for removal after it had passed lab tests. The tests only sample a small part of each crop, so mold may grow undetected and may sicken those who eat it or inhale its spores. Sanford said he was told to stop reporting mold, but continued to do so, and was terminated in July.

PharmaCann acknowledged that mold is a factor with any agricultural product, but is tightly controlled. By state law, all legal cannabis products must undergo lab tests to pass strict state limits on mold, pesticides, metals and other contaminants. If they fail, they may be treated with solvents for use in edibles, vapes and other products, but must be tested again to meet safety requirements. Options for sterilizing cannabis include irradiation or ozone gas, as used in the food industry.

Microdosing

Customers may have noticed a dizzying variety of new products this year. One growing trend was in the area of low-dose edibles, for consumers to better control their experience. Rather than the 10 milligrams of THC, the main component that gets users high, which was previously suggested as a serving size, mints and gummies now often contain 5 or 3 mg, often with matching cannabidiol, or CBD, for users who want to relax without getting too high or paranoid.

One study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Chicago found that low levels of THC reduced stress, while slightly higher doses that produced a mild high actually increased anxiety.

And a survey by BDS Analytics Report found that 43% of edibles customers prefer low-dose products, and half of customers chose products based on the amount of CBD, which is thought to have a moderating effect on THC.

Beverages are also growing in popularity, offering moderate doses of THC and the quick onset of effects without the smoke. For hardcore users, there are still plenty of high-powered flower, vapes and concentrates approaching 90% THC.

For those who don’t like the high prices and taxes of licensed weed, this year saw the rise of Delta-8 THC. It’s typically said to be derived from hemp, and provides similar, if milder, effects as the traditional Delta-9 THC found in pot. It’s often sold in gas stations or vape shops. A proposal to outlaw such knockoff cannabinoids did not pass in Springfield this year, but may be reconsidered in the spring session.

Cannabis suppliers continue to compete for customers through word-of-mouth and the occasional competition. Most recently, the High Times Cannabis Cup named its winners for 2021, as judged by public participants.

Wait till next year

Looking ahead to 2022, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat, has proposed legislation to expand the new craft growers licenses from 5,000 square feet to 14,000 square feet or more. That would still be a far cry from the 210,000 square feet of canopy that existing growers are allowed, but would help business owners get more financing based on their ability to produce more revenue.

Also, in light of the courts’ de facto lockout of new minority owners, a group called Ex-Cons for Community & Social Change held protests this year, calling for consumers to support their “local weed man,” or illegal dealers.

Found Tyrone Muhammad of Englewood, who served 21 years in prison for murder and now says he’s trying to rebuild his community, called for creation of a peddler’s license, so people without the money to open a bricks-and-mortar facility can take part in the cannabis industry. He believes licensing would reduce the violence that accompanies illegal drug dealing.

Muhammad is also pushing to change state law to drop the ban on former felons working in the field. As it stands, only those with low-level convictions can get expungements and get licensed.

“It’s still a farce,” he said. “In any other industry, as an ex-con, I can work. But I can’t work in the cannabis space.”

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M
Half a Dozen of India’s Crypto Exchanges Searched After Alleged Rupee 700M Tax Evasion Detected: Sources



Amitoj Singh
Sat, January 1, 2022

India’s tax authorities have conducted searches at some of India’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges including CoinSwitch Kuber, CoinDCX, BuyUCoin and Unocoin after what they deemed tax evasion of Rs 40.5 crore (400 million INR or approximately $6 million) was detected at cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, according to sources with direct knowledge of the searches.

On Dec. 30, a team of officers from CGST (Goods & Services Tax and Central Excise) Mumbai East Zone, tax authorities in India’s financial capital, tweeted this:

On Dec. 31, the tax authority revealed details in a statement saying “the case is a part of the special anti-tax evasion drive, which relies on intensive data mining and data analytics, initiated by the CGST Mumbai Zone.”

The agency also warned that it “will cover all the cryptocurrency exchanges falling in Mumbai zone and will also intensify this drive in the coming days.”

The Binance-owned WazirX blamed a lack of clarity in regulation for the matter, saying it’s “been diligently paying tens of crores worth of GST every month.”

The exchange added: “There was an ambiguity in the interpretation of one of the components which led to a different calculation of GST paid. However, we voluntarily paid additional GST in order to be cooperative and compliant. There was and is no intention to evade tax. That being said, we strongly believe that regulatory clarity is the need of the hour for the Indian crypto industry.”

Following the WazirX search, Mumbai’s Tax authority, along with DGGI, the national law enforcement agency under the Ministry of Finance responsible for fighting tax evasion in India, searched the offices of about six cryptocurrency service providers on Saturday.

The DGGI recovered Rs 30 crore (approximately $4 million) worth of funds that resulted from alleged tax evasion during the crackdown on the cryptocurrency exchanges.

More than 50 officers conducted the searches and the exchanges cooperated, the sources told CoinDesk.