Democratic Rep.-elect Mary Peltola says she was 'not shocked' by her House special election win: 'Alaskans tend to have a long memory'

John L. Dorman
Sun, September 11, 2022 


Democrat Mary Peltola smiles at supporters after delivering remarks

 at a fundraiser on Aug. 12, 2022, in Juneau, Alaska.

AP Photo/Becky Bohrer

Mary Peltola told Politico she wasn't "shocked" by her House special election victory in Alaska.

The Democratic congresswoman-elect credited her work ethic and reputation as assets in the race.

Peltola beat out Sarah Palin and Nick Begich to serve out the remainder of Don Young's term.

Alaska hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory in 1964.

The state last backed a Democrat in a Senate race in 2008, when then-Anchorage Mark Begich won a close contest against veteran Republican lawmaker Ted Stevens.

And for nearly 50 years, Alaska voters sent longtime Republican Don Young to Washington, DC, as its at-large congressman.

But in the race to succeed Young — who passed away in February — former Democratic state Rep. Mary Peltola won a House special election last month in a field that included former Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and Republican Nick Begich III. (Begich is the nephew of the former Democratic senator.)

Despite the long history of GOP triumphs in the Frontier State, Peltola — who will be the first Alaska Native elected to Congress — said she was not surprised by her victory.

In an interview with Politico, she spoke of the tight-knit nature of Alaskan politicians and her embrace of bipartisanship while serving in the legislature — where she also developed a working relationship with Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee.

"I was very optimistic," she told the outlet. "The three of us who were in the final round of the special election, we had come out of a field of 48 candidates. And I worked very, very hard."

She continued: "I was on the phone two or three hours a day reaching out to Alaskans across the state. We had a number of events that we hosted to connect with as many voters as I possibly could."

Peltola remarked that her experience in the Alaska House of Representatives was a key part of her background.

"I did have a lot of connections that I had made over the 10 years in the Statehouse," she told Politico. "I developed a reputation over the years that I served in Juneau of being very easy to work with, able to work with anyone in the building — regardless of party."

"Alaska is a small state. Most of the people who are in leadership positions have been here many decades and Alaskans tend to have a long memory. So I was not shocked at the outcome of our race," she added.

The election was held with ranked-choice voting, where voters can indicate on their ballots their ranked preferences. If no candidate has received the majority of the vote in a race, the candidates are eliminated until votes for the top-two finishers are tallied up and a winner is declared.

After the votes were tabulated, Peltola defeated Palin 51.5%-48.5%.

The congresswoman-elect — who will sworn in on Tuesday — will serve out the remaining weeks of Young's term, and will once again face Palin and Begich in November for a full two-year term in office.

One of the largest student-loan companies could be engaging in 'unconscionable' behavior by encouraging refinancing to federal borrowers, Elizabeth Warren and Ayanna Pressley say

Ayelet Sheffey

Mon, September 12, 2022 a

Elizabeth Warren and Ayanna Pressley.Win McNamee/Getty Images, Alex Wong/Getty Images

• Elizabeth Warren and Ayanna Pressley wrote a letter to Navient over its communication to student-loan borrowers.

• They cited an Insider report that found companies are sending notices about refinancing to private debt.

• This would make federal borrowers ineligible for Biden's recently announced debt cancellation.

Two Democratic lawmakers are worried a major student-loan company could jeopardize President Joe Biden's debt cancellation for some federal borrowers.

On Monday, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley sent a letter — exclusively provided to Insider — to Navient CEO John Remondi requesting information on guidance the company is giving student-loan borrowers right now.

After Biden announced up to $20,000 in student-loan forgiveness for federal borrowers at the end of August, Insider reported that some student-loan companies, including Navient, were emailing borrowers about their options to refinance their federal debt to a private servicer. This could get them a lower interest rate, but it would make them ineligible for federal debt relief.

Warren and Pressley cited Insider's report in the letter to Remondi and said the "tactics are unconscionable: just weeks after President Biden announced his plans to provide student loan relief for millions of borrowers, Navient is attempting to place them into refinanced loans that are ineligible for relief."

"If these reports are accurate, they reveal a particularly nefarious and harmful last-ditch tactic by Navient to profiteer off of the hardship of borrowers that finally are within grasping distance of obtaining relief from their abusive student loans," they wrote.

For Insider's report, a Navient spokesperson pointed Insider to the fine print of the email, which disclosed that borrowers could be at risk of losing federal benefits like Biden's student loan forgiveness if they refinance. The spokesperson added that "for a number of years, we have reached out to prospective borrowers about their options to refinance to lower rates with NaviRefi," its refinancing tool.

But Warren and Pressley wrote that since these emails are coming amid a time of confusion following Biden's debt cancellation, they worry the communications could be "predatory" and steer borrowers into financial situations that are not the best option. They're requesting Navient respond to the following questions by September 26:

1. How many people received Navient's refinancing email after Biden announced debt cancellation?

2. How many borrowers have refinanced to private loans since Biden's announcement?

3. How does Navient plan to advise borrowers on Biden's announcement and other reforms?

4. What outreach is Navient doing for borrowers with FFEL loans, which are privately-held federal loans?

"Following President Biden's life-changing action to cancel student debt for millions of Americans, Navient appears to be misleading and misinforming student borrowers on their options – potentially keeping borrowers indebted with private loans while federal relief is in sight," Warren told Insider. "Alongside Congresswoman Pressley, I'm working to ensure federal borrowers receive accurate information regarding student debt cancellation and will continue oversight throughout the implementation of this policy."

Both Warren and Pressley have been vocal leaders pushing Biden to deliver student-debt relief for millions of borrowers. For even longer, Warren has been cracking down on what she calls predatory behavior by student-loan companies like Navient. Last year, Navient announced it would be ending its contract for federal loan servicing, and Warren at the time said the "federal student loan program will be far better off without them."

In November 2018, for example, Warren released an audit providing evidence of Navient's record of causing students to go into deeper student debt by "steering student borrowers into forbearance when that was often the worst financial option for them." During an April hearing where she invited the CEOs of all the student-loan companies to testify, Warren told Remondi that he should be fired for the abuses that happened under his leadership.

Before Biden announced broad relief, student-loan companies warned the Education Department that issues might arise with implementation of this plan on such short notice, with only a week before payments were previously scheduled to resume on September 1.

Scott Buchanan, the executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance — a group that represents federal loan servicers — wrote a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in August that the department gave companies "grossly insufficient notice to reprogram the massive and interwoven systems that handle loan accounts, provide appropriate system testing time, and also construct and implement revised communication plans."

Elizabeth Warren and Ayanna Pressley want to know how 9 student loan companies will avoid causing 'grave harm to borrowers' while implementing Biden's debt cancellation

Ayelet Sheffey

Mon, September 12, 2022 

FEBRUARY 4: (L-R) Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) speaks as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) looks on during a press conference about student debt outside the U.S. Capitol on February 4, 2021 in Washington, DC.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

• In August, Biden announced up to $20,000 in federal student-loan forgiveness.

• Elizabeth Warren and Ayanna Pressley requested information from loan companies on how they will carry out the relief.

• They said that borrowers could face "grave harm" if companies fail to deliver accurate information.

Student-loan companies are tasked with carrying out President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness — and two Democratic lawmakers want to ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible.

At the end of August, Biden announced $10,000 to $20,000 in student-loan forgiveness for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley want to ensure the nine companies who service those loans are prepared to implement that relief effectively.

In a letter provided exclusively to Insider on Monday, Warren and Pressley asked the heads of each of the companies to provide an update on how they plan to deliver "accurate and timely information" on the recently announced relief, along with other reforms to the student-loan system.

"Servicers must ensure that they are appropriately staffed to handle the increased volume of borrowers calling to get information about the administration's recent announcements, that they are providing accurate information to borrowers, that they have strong systems in place to ensure balances and payments are adjusted accurately, and that borrowers are notified about these changes on a timely basis," Pressley and Warren wrote.

"Failure to do so would cause grave harm to borrowers," they added.

The two lawmakers noted events that have already caused confusion with student-loan borrowers. They cited a report from Insider that found one company, Nelnet, mistakenly told some borrowers they had payments due on September 1 in August. And, in an accompanying letter, Warren and Pressley requested information from Navient following a report from Insider that found the company was giving borrowers the option to refinance their debt into private loans, making them ineligible for loan forgiveness.

"We're putting the servicers on notice," Pressley told Insider. "It's imperative that servicers provide borrowers with accurate and up-to-date information on their student loans. Thanks to President Biden's plan to cancel student debt, millions are now eligible for meaningful student loan debt cancellation and we need to ensure it is administered efficiently and felt by as many people as possible. Senator Warren and I want answers."

To ensure the companies are communicating effectively with borrowers on relief, the lawmakers requested information on the guidance the companies are sending out to borrowers surrounding broad student-loan forgiveness, reforms to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, and reforms to income-driven repayment (IDR) plans by September 26.

Last year, the Education Department announced reforms to PSLF, including a temporary waiver through October 31, 2022 that would allow past payments to count toward forgiveness progress, including those previously deemed ineligible. As the lawmakers noted, this expiration date is soon approaching and they want to ensure companies are communicating the timeline to borrowers — along with benefits borrowers can receive from a new, income-driven plan the department will roll out intended to lower monthly payments once the student-loan payment pause ends next year.

Even before Biden announced relief, lawmakers were expressing concerns with loan companies' abilities to effectively implement the relief. In a June letter, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar led her Democratic colleagues in writing to the Education Department to ensure companies were prepared to "deliver debt cancellation quickly and efficiently, no matter the effort and resources required."

But the companies themselves have warned the department of issues that could arise with implementing this relief. Scott Buchanan, the executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance — a group that represents federal servicers — previously told Insider that it could take "months to operationalize" Biden's announcement. He later wrote in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona that the debt relief "risks operational disruptions."

The department maintains it has the ability to carry out this relief and said borrowers should prepare to apply for loan forgiveness in early October.

Toxin-spewing generators keep the lights on around Mideast

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Mideast Running on Generators

An exhaust pipe from a diesel generator spouts fumes near a residential building in Beirut, Lebanon, March 4, 2022. Private generators are ubiquitous in parts of the Middle East, spewing hazardous fumes into homes and business across the country, almost 24 hours a day. As the world looks for renewable energy to tackle climate change, Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza and elsewhere rely on diesel-powered private generators just to keep the lights on. The reason is state failure: In multiple countries, governments can’t maintain a functioning central power network, whether because of war, conflict or mismanagement and corruption. 

(AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)


ZEINA KARAM
Mon, September 12, 2022 

BEIRUT (AP) — They literally run the country.

In parking lots, on flatbed trucks, hospital courtyards and rooftops, private generators are ubiquitous in parts of the Middle East, spewing hazardous fumes into homes and businesses 24 hours a day.

As the world looks for renewable energy to tackle climate change, millions of people around the region depend almost completely on diesel-powered private generators to keep the lights on because war or mismanagement have gutted electricity infrastructure.

Experts call it national suicide from an environmental and health perspective.

“Air pollution from diesel generators contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants, including many known or suspected cancer-causing substances,” said Samy Kayed, managing director and co-founder of the Environment Academy at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

Greater exposure to these pollutants likely increases respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular disease, he said. It also causes acid rain that harms plant growth and poisons bodies of water, killing aquatic plants.

Since they usually use diesel, generators also produce far more climate change-inducing emissions than, for example, a natural gas power plant, he said.

The pollutants caused by massive generators add to the many environmental woes of the Middle East, which is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impact of climate change. The region already has high temperatures and limited water resources even without the impact of global warming.

The reliance on generators results from state failure. In Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan, governments can’t maintain a functioning central power network, whether because of war, conflict or mismanagement and corruption.

Lebanon, for example, has not built a new power plant in decades. Multiple plans for new ones have run aground on politicians’ factionalism and conflicting patronage interests. The country’s few aging, heavy-fuel oil plants long ago became unable to meet demand.

Iraq, meanwhile, sits on some of the world’s biggest oil reserves. Yet scorching summer-time heat is always accompanied by the roar of neighborhood generators, as residents blast ACs around the clock to keep cool.

Repeated wars over the decades have wrecked Iraq’s electricity networks. Corruption has siphoned away billions of dollars meant to repair it. Some 17 billion cubic meters of gas from Iraq’s wells are burned every year as waste, because governments haven’t built the infrastructure to capture it and convert it to electricity.

The need for generators has become deeply engrained in people’s minds. At a recent concert in the capital Baghdad, famed singer Umm Ali al-Malla made sure to thank the venue’s technical director “for keeping the generator going.”

The Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people rely on around 700 neighborhood generators across the territory for their homes. Thousands of private generators keep businesses, government institutions, universities and health centers running. Running on diesel, they churn black smoke in the air, tarring walls around them.

Since Israel bombed the only power plant in the Hamas-ruled territory in 2014, the station has never reached full capacity. Gaza only gets about half the power it needs from the plant and directly from Israel. Cutoffs can last up to 16 hours a day.

Perhaps nowhere do generators rule people’s lives as much as in Lebanon, where the system is so entrenched that private generator owners have their own business association.

Lebanon’s 5 million people have long depended on them. The word “moteur,” French for generator, is one of the most often spoken words among Lebanese.

Reliance has only increased since Lebanon’s economy unraveled in late 2019 and central power cutoffs began lasting longer. At the same time, generator owners have had to ration use because of soaring diesel prices and high temperatures, turning them off several times a day for breaks.

So residents plan their lives around the gaps in electricity.

That means setting an alarm to make a cup of coffee before the generator turns off in the morning. The frail or elderly in apartment towers wait for the generator before leaving home so they don’t have to climb stairs. Hospitals must keep generators humming so life-saving machines can operate without disruption.

“We understand people’s frustration, but if it wasn’t for us, people would be living in darkness,” said Ihab, the Egyptian operator of a generator station north of Beirut.

“They say we are more powerful than the state, but it is the absence of the state that led us to exist,” he said, giving only his first name to avoid trouble with the authorities.

Siham Hanna, a 58-year-old translator in Beirut, said generator fumes exacerbate her elderly father’s lung condition. She wipes soot off her balcony and other surfaces several times a day.

“It’s the 21st century, but we live like in the stone ages. Who lives like this?” said Hanna, who does not recall her country ever having stable electricity in her life.

Unlike most power plants, generators are in the heart of neighborhoods, pumping toxins directly to residents.

There are almost no regulations and no filtering of particles, said Najat Saliba, a chemist at the American University of Beirut who recently won a seat in Parliament.

“This is extremely taxing on the environment, especially the amount of black carbon and particles that they emit,” she said.

Researchers at AUB found that the level of toxic emissions may have quadrupled since Lebanon’s financial crisis began because of increased reliance on generators.

Similarly, a 2020 study in Iraq on the environmental impact of generators at the University of Technology in Baghdad found very high concentrations of pollutants, including carcinogens. It noted that Iraqi diesel fuel is “one of the worst in the world,” with a high sulphur content.

Generator emissions and “exert a remarkable impact on the overall health of students and university staff, it said.

___

Associated Press writers Samya Kullab in Baghdad, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, Salar Salim in Erbil, Iraq, Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza and Rami Musa in Benghazi, Libya contributed reporting.

Risch: Vote against chips bill ‘painful.’ What leaders said as Micron broke ground

Angela Palermo

Mon, September 12, 2022 


Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said the city did everything it could to encourage Micron Technology Inc. to expand at its headquarters.

The company broke ground Monday at the site of its new $15 billion memory manufacturing fab. Micron leaders appeared alongside government officials and business leaders who helped Micron bring the fab to its Southeast Boise campus, south of the Gowen Road exit from Interstate 84.

“We did all that we could to keep this investment here,” McLean said. “Our city and this company have really evolved together. We are so proud that Micron has chosen Boise.”

Micron Technology Inc. President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, third from left, breaks ground Monday for a $15 billion memory manufacturing plant on Micron’s Southeast Boise campus. From left are U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Mehrotra, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Acting Director Dr. Alondra Nelson, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, and Scott DeBoer, Micron’s executive vice president of technology and products.

The fab is expected to generate about 2,000 direct jobs at Micron and 15,000 indirect jobs in industries across Idaho. The company has also said the jobs will be high paying.

Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Sen. Jim Risch, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Dr. Alondra Nelson, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, also made remarks at the ceremony.

The event commenced with a red, white and blue explosion in the distance. Then officials turned shovels of dirt in front of a U.S. flag suspended by heavy construction equipment.

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean explains the importance of Micron to the community, and the impact of an estimated 2,000 direct jobs (15,000 indirect jobs across Idaho) that will follow the construction of the fab.
Micron’s cofounding brothers attend

Gov. Brad Little acknowledged two of the founders of Micron in attendance, Ward and Joe Parkinson.

“This piece of real estate and this company here, started by two brothers from the potato capital of the world – how appropriate is that?” Little said. “They came here with about three or four Idaho innovators, and I’m sure when they had their groundbreaking, it was probably with some farmer’s old backhoe.”

Risch: Idaho delegation backs semiconductor subsidy

Sen. Jim Risch said the groundbreaking was possible only because of the work he and others did in Congress to subsidize U.S. construction of semiconductor manufacturing, in part for national security. Most semiconductor plants are overseas.

While the entire Idaho congressional delegation ultimately voted against the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, that was only after a considerable amount of spending was added to support other ventures unrelated to the $52 billion in support of the semiconductor industry, Risch said.

At the event, Risch said he and his colleagues, including Sen. Mike Crapo and Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson, “painfully voted no,” knowing the legislation would likely still pass, and if it didn’t, they could pass a standalone bill with the $52 billion.

President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law Aug. 9. Granholm and Nelson flew from Washington D.C. to Boise to attend the groundbreaking ceremony on Biden’s behalf, according to a White House spokesperson.

Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm speaks to the need for more U.S.-based microchip manufacturing and high-tech development.
White House science official on education pipeline

Nelson told the Idaho Statesman during an exclusive interview Monday that Micron’s investments could transform education in the state.

“If we are going to succeed, and we are going to succeed, in fulfilling the bold mission behind the CHIPS and Science (Act), we literally cannot afford to leave anybody behind,” Nelson said. “This has important implications for the region.”

Earlier this month, the company announced a partnership with the College of Western Idaho to deliver curriculum, such as advanced mechatronics engineering technology, to rural and underrepresented students. Mechatronics is a field within mechanical engineering.

CWI says it will lead efforts to deliver semiconductor programs and prepare students for Micron’s internships and technician apprenticeship program.

The company’s fab in Boise is set to be operational in 2025. It hopes to fill the new jobs with local talent.

“It’s going to take a couple years, but we need to reach those workers, reach those students and get them in this apprenticeship program,” Nelson said. “Get folks ready for the fab to be up and running. It’s the smart way to do it.”

Dr. Alondra Nelson, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, speaks about the importance of the CHIPS and Science Act.

Micron breaks ground on $15 billion U.S. chip plant, says more to come soon

The logo of U.S. memory chip maker MicronTechnology is pictured at their 

booth at an industrial fair in Frankfurt

Mon, September 12, 2022 

By Jane Lanhee Lee

(Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc, the biggest U.S. memory chip company, on Monday will break ground for a $15 billion factory in Boise, Idaho, and its chief executive told Reuters an announcement of another new U.S. plant will be coming soon.

“We are in final stages of another high volume manufacturing site that is going to be announced in the coming weeks,” CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said.

Both plants will produce DRAM chips that are widely used in data centers, personal computers and other devices. Once operational, U.S. plants will account for 40% of Micron’s DRAM production volume globally, up from 10% today, Mehrotra said. The Boise factory will be operational in 2025, he said.

Micron said this will be the first new memory chip factory built in the United States in 20 years, and will create 2,000 Micron jobs by the end of the decade.

Since U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act, which provides $52 billion to support home grown semiconductor manufacturing, a slew of companies have announced plans to make chips in the United States.

Intel Corp on Friday broke ground on a $20 billion factory in Ohio to build cutting edge processor chips.

While Micron once made chips in Boise where it got its start, volume manufacturing has moved away and it has big production centers in places like Japan, Taiwan and Singapore.

The company's core research and development operation has remained in Boise. Having manufacturing and R&D together will help accelerate the time to market, the CEO said.

Mehrotra said the U.S. investments do not represent a move away from Asian countries.

“This is not about divesting from manufacturing in any other part of the world, or bringing back manufacturing. This is about increasing,” he said.

“To meet the growing demand for memory, we have to increase our production," he said, adding that the "Chips and Science bill enables it to be increased here in the U.S.”

Micron has previously said it will be investing $150 billion through the decade, $40 billion of that in the United States. Mehrotra said that includes funds for research and development, the cost of which is increasing with advanced technologies.

(Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Micron makes plans for a big new Boise building. Is it the giant manufacturing plant?

PAUL SCHWEDELSON, ANGELA PALERMO

August 24, 2022, 12:32 PM

Micron Technology, Inc., the large campus in East Boise, Monday, Nov. 8, 2021.

Micron is making plans to expand in Boise and build a big new building.

No, it’s not the massive new manufacturing center, dubbed a mega-fab, that’s been discussed in recent months. It’s a seven-story office building.

The proposed building “is to be a world class, state-of-the-art building for the Micron Boise campus, both externally and internally,” Micron wrote in an application filed with the city.

Micron is Idaho’s largest for-profit employer, with about 7,000 workers in the Treasure Valley, mostly on its Southeast Boise headquarters campus where the new building is planned.

Micron numbers its buildings. This building would be B42, and it would be adjacent to Micron’s B26, B36 and B37 buildings on the southern side of the campus at 8000 S. Federal Way. The campus is south of the Gowen Road exit from Interstate 84.

The proposal “is in line with plans to preserve our options to accommodate Micron’s future growth,” Micron spokesperson Erica Rodriguez Pompen said in an emailed statement. “Micron Boise is the home of our global headquarters, and the epicenter of our innovation efforts. We will continue to invest in this site in line with our plans to meet long-term demand for memory and storage.”

The application for a design review hearing says the building “needs to blend in well with the existing campus buildings and landscape, while incorporating modern design trends and building elements.”

The building would include a west entry plaza with a visitors’ drop-off point, a pedestrian promenade on the east, and outdoor dining and lounge areas and an amphitheater, the application says.

It would be 124 feet, 6 inches tall and have 524,000 square feet, according to the application, whose filing was first reported by BoiseDev. That’s twice as big as the 265,000-square-foot main building at J.R. Simplot Co.’s downtown Boise headquarters and roughly the equivalent of three Walmart Supercenters.

A Micron spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Micron plans its ‘mega-fab’ in US

After Congress passed of the CHIPS and Science Act, Micron said it was looking to build a massive manufacturing plant in the U.S., but declined to say whether that would be near its headquarters.

The legislation authorized about $52 billion in incentives to computer chip manufacturers to build fabs domestically.

Fab is short for semiconductor fabrication, the manufacturing plants where DRAM, dynamic random-access memory, and NAND flash memory are produced. Micron is the only manufacturer of DRAM in the U.S.

The new plant Micron is planning to construct, called a mega-fab, would employ 3,000 to 5,000 people, including engineers, operators and permanent construction workers, the company has said. Non-Micron jobs created as part of the fab would bring the total to about 10,000 people, according to previous reporting by the Statesman.

Micron has not yet said where it plans to build such a plant, in Idaho or elsewhere. Earlier this month, an executive at the company told the Idaho Statesman that it was considering locations in several states across the country.

Micron used to manufacture chips for sale on its Boise campus but stopped in 2009 and increased production at other fabs, mainly abroad. It still has a fab in Boise that the company calls a “pilot line” for research and development.

Business and Local Government Editor David Staats contributed.

Shipping rates plunge as experts say 'unprecedented' boom has peaked

Dani Romero

·Reporter

Sun, September 11, 2022 

Ocean shipping rates on major trade routes have fallen by more than half since the beginning of this year, a potential sign of easing inflation pressures and alleviated supply chain logjams.

Data from Freightos shows the cost to ship a 40-feet container from China to the U.S. West Coast is around $4,300, down almost 72% from mid-January.

In comparison, a container shipped from Asia to Europe costs around $7,800, 40% less than at the start of the year. The rate for both key routes still remains elevated from pre-pandemic levels.

“The unprecedented pandemic-led boom in freight rates has peaked,” Jonathan Roach, a container shipping analyst at London-based Braemar, wrote in a report this week.

Shipping rates have fallen sharply over the last several months as pandemic pressures ease. (Source: Braemer Markets)

“We're not expecting rates to surge next year. They're going to probably fall down towards pre-pandemic levels, maybe slightly higher for the additional levies [that] will be charged for cleaner shipping,” Roach told Yahoo Finance in a phone interview.

Roach said new ships will be deployed over the next two years, as shipping groups have “invested heavily” in container fleet growth after profits soared in recent years.

Freight rates from China to the U.S and Europe both rose north of $20,000 last September due to supply-chain disruptions, port backlogs, and a surge in cargo. Over the past two years, shippers have shifted cargo to the ports in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico in hopes of avoiding congestion that clogged West Coast ports. The port of New York and New Jersey said it has seen rise of 34 percent in cargo volume compared to pre-pandemic levels.

As shippers diverted freight to eastern ports, congestion moved along with it. Data from Flexport shows that vessels remain at anchor in New York, Savannah, Georgia, Houston, Texas, for more than a week.

Aerial shot of the Port of Savannah in Georgia on a clear evening in Fall, with a densely packed intermodal container yard and cranes reaching out over ships docked in the Savannah River. This shot was taken during the global supply chain crisis, and the terminal is visibly at capacity. Authorization was obtained from the FAA for this operation in restricted airspace.

And industry analysts and shipping companies predict shipping rates will continue to drop for the rest of the year and into 2023.

Some large importers like Walmart decided to take matters into their own hands over the last couple years, even chartering their own vessels instead of waiting for ocean carriers to have space in order to keep shelves stocked. Now, Walmart and other retailers are faced with bloated stockrooms and consumers pulling back from a two-year spending spree as inflation bites.

Deutsche Bank’s Amit Mehrotra sent a note to clients back in August about the "sonic boom" of high inventories, writing: "Whether it's the wrong inventory or a pull forward of peak season... it still represents [shelves] that don't need to be restocked."

“The main driver [of lower prices] is a decrease in demand for ocean freight and what's driving the decrease in ocean freight is probably a number of things," Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, told Yahoo Finance in a phone interview. "The number one thing might be inflation… people are spending less on more discretionary things."

“This really isn't peak season. This is kind of a non-peak season because everybody shipped beforehand,” Levine added.

In a speech this week, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard highlighted elevated inventory levels and profit margins from the boom in spending last year as potential positives in the central bank's fight to bring down inflation.

"Reductions in markups could also make an important contribution to reduced pricing pressures," Brainard said. "Last year's rapid demand growth in the face of supply constraints led to product shortages in some areas of the economy and high margins for many firms."

Shipping firms are no doubt on this list.

VIDEO Shipping rates plunge as experts say 'unprecedented' boom has peaked (yahoo.com)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
DOJ Short-Selling Probe Eyes Bets on Amazon, Microsoft and JPMorgan

Matt Robinson and Tom Schoenberg
Mon, September 12, 2022 



(Bloomberg) -- Federal investigators searching for collusion among short sellers have posed a surprising question in recent months:

US prosecutors have sent subpoenas that ask about transactions in a variety of blue-chip stocks to some of the same short sellers who previously responded to inquiries about a long list of lesser-known companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Those prior demands were part of a look at how bearish investors gather and publish research about companies with the aim of profiting when stocks drop.

The demands make clear that authorities are continuing to amass vast tracts of data. In earlier requests that emerged publicly in December, investigators gathered information on dozens of investment firms and researchers, as well as transactions involving more than 50 stocks. People with knowledge of those inquiries have said authorities are looking for evidence activist firms sought to exacerbate stock drops or otherwise manipulate markets, potentially through a variety of strategies.

But activist short sellers don’t typically target the world’s most valuable companies -- which makes the latest requests all the more puzzling.

Giants like retailer Amazon, software powerhouse Microsoft and JPMorgan, the largest US bank, are closely scrutinized. Their share prices are anchored by legions of index-tracking funds that have to own them, as well as institutional buyers such as pensions with long investment horizons. This leaves little room for short sellers proffering bearish forecasts to move stock prices more than, say, the underlying economy does.

Smaller companies, on the other hand, don’t attract as much attention from market professionals or index funds and are thinly traded, leaving them vulnerable when short sellers present evidence of malfeasance that scares off individual investors.

The look at megacap securities suggests investigators found something among the reams of data culled from the first round of subpoenas issued to individuals and firms last year, said James Cox, a professor at Duke University School of Law.

“It doesn’t surprise me that they’ve come back with another round of subpoenas,” Cox said. “There’s a learning curve for the government when it comes to market-manipulation cases.”

Spokespeople for the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission, which is running a parallel investigation, declined to comment. Representatives for Amazon, Microsoft and JPMorgan also had no comment.

Since subpoenas went out a few months ago, word has percolated through the gossipy world of short sellers, and so too has conjecture about what theories the feds might be exploring on the hunt for illegal collusion. Of note, the latest subpoenas were issued under prosecutors who took over after colleagues left the department for private practice.

While it’s unclear what kind of trading patterns investigators may be zeroing in on, potentially abusive short-selling practices can include spoofing, in which traders rapidly submit and cancel orders to mislead the market, and matched trading, which usually involves a few parties working together, arranging trades designed to set prices or inflate volume and create the appearance of interest in a stock.

“It certainly suggests that they’re still working and that they’re following the path that the documents and the information from witness statements may be providing to them,” said Ken Joseph, a former SEC enforcement official who’s now a managing director at Kroll LLC.

The subpoenas aren’t the only movement in the case. The SEC is on the hunt for possible cooperators. The regulator recently sought assistance from a researcher regarding several short-selling and research firms under scrutiny, according to two people who asked not to be named in order to protect the confidentiality of that query. The SEC didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.

As Bloomberg previously reported, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized computers from the home of prominent short seller Andrew Left, the founder of Citron Research, in early 2021. In October, Carson Block of Muddy Waters and two of his associates had their phones taken while also receiving a subpoena and search warrant. Around that time, the Justice Department subpoenaed other market participants seeking communications, calendars and other records relating to almost 30 investment and research firms, as well as three dozen individuals associated with them.

No one has been accused of wrongdoing. The opening of an investigation doesn’t necessarily mean that any claims will be brought.