Latest news with #CandyLand
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sweet start to summer at Pekin Public Library's Candy Land Adventure
PEKIN, Ill. (WMBD) — Summer kicked off in the sweetest way at the Pekin Public Library, where more than 500 people and families stepped into a life-sized game of Candy Land. The event was the library's Summer Adventure Kickoff Party, and was one of the largest turnouts in the library's history. Library staff say the goal was to spark joy, bring the community together, and encourage a love of reading as summer begins. 'It's very important because then they can keep up on their reading skills,' said Catrina Klassen, Head of Youth Services at Pekin Public Library. 'So then when they go into the school year, next year they're ready to go. And then teachers don't have to go back and re-teach some of those skills so that they can keep up on those skills throughout the summer.' The event was held on Saturday, May 31, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., which had the library transformed into a colorful, candy-themed wonderland to launch its annual Summer Reading Program with imagination and excitement. Children followed a rainbow path through the library, picking up their Summer Reading Game Cards and exploring a magical land of sweet surprises. Families enjoyed a day packed with fun, including a bouncy house, balloon artists, interactive games, and meet-and-greet moments with Sonic and Mario, adding to the excitement for kids of all ages. Klassen also explained the motivation behind this year's program theme. 'Illinois does like a summer reading theme for all the libraries, so 'Level Up' was the whole thing for the state of Illinois, which I think is a great motivator because kids love games. So this is a great way to get them to want to read.' Whether bouncing, reading, or racing through Candy Land, families left with big smiles — and even bigger stacks of books. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
It's not just Elon Musk. Other Trump tech allies are turning on his 'big, beautiful bill.'
Elon Musk has announced his opposition to a second major plank of Donald Trump's agenda (after previously turning on the president's tariff plans) when he said in a new interview he was "disappointed" by the price tag of Trump's "big, beautiful bill." The bill "increases the budget deficit ... and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," the world's richest man said in a CBS interview that is scheduled to air in full this weekend. And Musk is not the only one in the world of tech who has questions. The opposition to the bill has been in evidence among at least a few of Trump's Silicon Valley allies, largely due to a price tag that could see over $3 trillion in new red ink if the bill is passed, as well as lawmakers declining so far to formalize cuts proposed by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). "This thing is an albatross," said Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist who co-hosted a fundraiser for Trump during his campaign, on a recent episode of the popular "All-In" podcast. In the episode, three of the four co-hosts leveled critiques against the bill. Co-host Jason Calacanis called the bill a failure of leadership on Trump's part. The fourth Big Tech figure was David Sacks, the most outspoken Trump ally of the set, who currently works as the White House AI and crypto czar. He defended pieces of the bill — notably tax cuts — and added, "You have to be realistic about how much we can get done here." But the critiques by the three others were withering and quickly noted by other like-minded figures in the tech world — and also gleefully highlighted by some of the podcast's hosts — with charges of fiscal irresponsibility and even that the bill was a sort of "'deep state' Candy Land." Others in Silicon Valley have offered their support for certain provisions — notably Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's praise for the inclusion of gig workers in Trump's no tax on tips plans — but other leading voices have been wary or at least quiet on the plans since they passed. And the next "All-In episode" came just a few days later and featured Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), an outspoken critic of the bill who is promising major changes. The opposition from Silicon Valley has been mirrored by at least some voters, as well as respondents to a new Morning Consult survey this week finding 50% were opposed to the reconciliation package after its major components — from tax changes to decreased funding for Medicaid — were defined. The political pressure has had at least some effect on Trump, who went from posting the morning after the bill passed the House that the Senate needed to "send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!" to sounding much more open to changes just a few days later. Asked Wednesday afternoon about the criticisms, Trump declined to criticize Musk before adding of the current bill "I'm not happy about certain aspects of it" and suggesting at least some changes could be coming. "It's got a ways to go," he said of ongoing negotiations. A big part of the issue is that Musk and his DOGE allies rode into Washington months ago with giant promises to cut "at least" $2 trillion from the government's annual budget, an effort that has shown little results even after causing chaos among the federal workforce and seeing Musk recently take a step back. A tracker of real-time government spending from the Brookings Institution shows that overall government spending in calendar year 2025 is actually slightly up from 2024 spending levels, even as the effect of DOGE can clearly be seen on smaller agencies like the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In a separate interview this week with the Washington Post, Musk lamented the criticism and opposition his cost-cutting project engendered, saying, "DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything." Musk previously appeared to signal his opposition to the bill when he posted last week — as the bill was being debated — that "the profligacy of government means that only radical improvements in productivity can save our country." This week's CBS interview has seen him be much more specific. "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both," he joked, adding, "My personal opinion." This story has been updated with additional developments. Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Nowhere to turn': Small businesses dependent on imports from China are feeling more desperate
NEW YORK (AP) — Major orders canceled. Containers of products left stranded overseas. No roadmap for what comes next. The Trump administration raised tariffs on goods from China to 145% in early April. Since then, small business owners who depend on imports from China to survive have become increasingly desperate as they eye dwindling inventory and skyrocketing invoices. President Donald Trump seemed to back down somewhat last week when he said he expected the tariffs to come down 'substantially.' That helped set off a rally in the stock market. But for small businesses that operate on razor-thin margins, the back and forth is causing massive upheaval. Some say they could be just months from going out of business altogether. The Massachusetts family-owned game company Game makers are particularly susceptible to the tariffs since the majority of games and toys sold in the U.S. are made in China, according to The Toy Association. WS Game Co., based in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, is a family-owned business that licenses Hasbro board games like Monopoly, Candy Land and Scrabble and creates deluxe versions of them. Its most popular line of games come in boxes that look like vintage books and sell for $40. The company's games were featured in Oprah's Favorite Things list in 2024 and sold in 14,000 stores in North America, from big national chains to mom-and-pop stores, said owner Jonathan Silva, whose father founded the company in 2000. All of WS Game's production is done in China. The tariffs have brought the past 25 years of healthy growth to a screeching halt. Over the past three weeks, WS Game has had three containers of finished games, worth $500,000, stranded in China. It lost orders from three of the largest U.S. retailers totaling $16 million in business. And there's not much Silva can do about it. 'As a small business, we don't have the runway or the capabilities to move manufacturing on a whim,' said Silva, who has 22 employees. He said the tariffs have 'disrupted our business and put us on the verge of insolvency' and estimates he has about a four-month runway to stay afloat if nothing changes. 'We're really hoping that cooler heads prevail,' he said. Artificial flowers in Kentucky Jeremy Rice co-owns House, a home-décor shop in Lexington, Kentucky, that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home. About 90% of the flowers his business uses are made in China. Rice uses dozens of vendors. The largest are absorbing some of the cost of the tariffs and passing on the rest. One vendor is raising prices by 20% and another 25%. But Rice is expecting smaller vendors to increase prices by much higher percentages. House offers mid-range artificial flowers. A large hydrangea head will retail for $10 to $16, for example. China is the only place that manufacturers higher quality silk flowers. It would take a vendor years to open a factory in a different country or move production somewhere else, Rice said. Rice ordered his holiday décor early this year. But even after stocking up ahead of the tariffs, he only has enough everyday floral inventory in to last two to three months. 'After that, I don't know what we're going to do,' he said. Rice is concerned that the trade war will wipe out a bunch of mom-and-pop stores, similar to what happened in the Great Recession and the pandemic. 'There's nowhere to turn, there's nothing to do,' he said. Tea in Michigan A tea shop in a Michigan college town is also caught in the middle of the ongoing tariff fight. 'It's basically just put a big pit in my stomach,' said Lisa McDonald, owner of TeaHaus, located in Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan. McDonald has owned TeaHaus for nearly 18 years and sells tea to customers across the U.S. Americans drank about 86 billion servings of tea in 2024, according to the Tea Association of the U.S.A.. Almost all of that is imported since tea isn't grown in the U.S. at scale, due to factors ranging from climate to cost. McDonald imports loose-leaf tea from China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and other countries. She says her customer base is 'from all over the U.S. and the world." But she worries there is a limit to what they'll spend. Her premium teas can cost up to $33 for a 50-gram bag. 'I don't think I can charge $75 for a 50-gram bag of tea, no matter how amazing that tea is,' she said. McDonald understands Trump's rationale for wanting to use tariffs to spur U.S. manufacturing but says it doesn't apply to the tea industry. 'We can't grow tea in the U.S. to the extent that we need. We can't just flip the industry and 'make tea great again' in America. It just can't happen,' she said. Car accessories in Oklahoma Jim Umlauf's business, 4Knines, based in Oklahoma City, makes vehicle seat covers and cargo liners for dog owners and others. To do so, he needs raw materials such as fabric, coatings and components from China. Umlauf has explored manufacturing in countries other than China since 2018, when Trump first instituted a 25% tariff on goods from China, but has run into complications. In the meantime, 4Knines absorbs the extra cost, which Umlauf says has limited its growth and squeezed its margins. Now, the new tariffs make it nearly impossible to do business. The demand is there, but the company can't afford to bring over more products. 'We only have a limited amount of inventory left, and without some relief, we'll run out soon,' Umlauf said. As a small business owner who has worked hard to develop a high-quality brand, create jobs and contribute to the community, Umlauf is frustrated. He has tried to contact the White House and other decision-makers to ask for small business support. But he's gotten zero response. 'It's time for policymakers to consider the full impact of trade policies not just on stock prices or global competitiveness, but on the real people running small businesses,' he said. ___ AP videojournalist Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report. Sign in to access your portfolio
29-04-2025
- Business
'Nowhere to turn': Small businesses dependent on imports from China are feeling more desperate
NEW YORK -- Major orders canceled. Containers of products left stranded overseas. No roadmap for what comes next. The Trump administration raised tariffs on goods from China to 145% in early April. Since then, small business owners who depend on imports from China to survive have become increasingly desperate as they eye dwindling inventory and skyrocketing invoices. President Donald Trump seemed to back down somewhat last week when he said he expected the tariffs to come down 'substantially.' That helped set off a rally in the stock market. But for small businesses that operate on razor-thin margins, the back and forth is causing massive upheaval. Some say they could be just months from going out of business altogether. Game makers are particularly susceptible to the tariffs since the majority of games and toys sold in the U.S. are made in China, according to The Toy Association. WS Game Co., based in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, is a family-owned business that licenses Hasbro board games like Monopoly, Candy Land and Scrabble and creates deluxe versions of them. Its most popular line of games come in boxes that look like vintage books and sell for $40. The company's games were featured in Oprah's Favorite Things list in 2024 and sold in 14,000 stores in North America, from big national chains to mom-and-pop stores, said owner Jonathan Silva, whose father founded the company in 2000. All of WS Game's production is done in China. The tariffs have brought the past 25 years of healthy growth to a screeching halt. Over the past three weeks, WS Game has had three containers of finished games, worth $500,000, stranded in China. It lost orders from three of the largest U.S. retailers totaling $16 million in business. And there's not much Silva can do about it. 'As a small business, we don't have the runway or the capabilities to move manufacturing on a whim,' said Silva, who has 22 employees. He said the tariffs have 'disrupted our business and put us on the verge of insolvency' and estimates he has about a four-month runway to stay afloat if nothing changes. 'We're really hoping that cooler heads prevail,' he said. Jeremy Rice co-owns House, a home-décor shop in Lexington, Kentucky, that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home. About 90% of the flowers his business uses are made in China. Rice uses dozens of vendors. The largest are absorbing some of the cost of the tariffs and passing on the rest. One vendor is raising prices by 20% and another 25%. But Rice is expecting smaller vendors to increase prices by much higher percentages. House offers mid-range artificial flowers. A large hydrangea head will retail for $10 to $16, for example. China is the only place that manufacturers higher quality silk flowers. It would take a vendor years to open a factory in a different country or move production somewhere else, Rice said. Rice ordered his holiday décor early this year. But even after stocking up ahead of the tariffs, he only has enough everyday floral inventory in to last two to three months. 'After that, I don't know what we're going to do,' he said. Rice is concerned that the trade war will wipe out a bunch of mom-and-pop stores, similar to what happened in the Great Recession and the pandemic. 'There's nowhere to turn, there's nothing to do,' he said. A tea shop in a Michigan college town is also caught in the middle of the ongoing tariff fight. 'It's basically just put a big pit in my stomach,' said Lisa McDonald, owner of TeaHaus, located in Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan. McDonald has owned TeaHaus for nearly 18 years and sells tea to customers across the U.S. Americans drank about 86 billion servings of tea in 2024, according to the Tea Association of the U.S.A.. Almost all of that is imported since tea isn't grown in the U.S. at scale, due to factors ranging from climate to cost. McDonald imports loose-leaf tea from China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and other countries. She says her customer base is 'from all over the U.S. and the world." But she worries there is a limit to what they'll spend. Her premium teas can cost up to $33 for a 50-gram bag. 'I don't think I can charge $75 for a 50-gram bag of tea, no matter how amazing that tea is,' she said. McDonald understands Trump's rationale for wanting to use tariffs to spur U.S. manufacturing but says it doesn't apply to the tea industry. 'We can't grow tea in the U.S. to the extent that we need. We can't just flip the industry and 'make tea great again' in America. It just can't happen,' she said. Jim Umlauf's business, 4Knines, based in Oklahoma City, makes vehicle seat covers and cargo liners for dog owners and others. To do so, he needs raw materials such as fabric, coatings and components from China. Umlauf has explored manufacturing in countries other than China since 2018, when Trump first instituted a 25% tariff on goods from China, but has run into complications. In the meantime, 4Knines absorbs the extra cost, which Umlauf says has limited its growth and squeezed its margins. Now, the new tariffs make it nearly impossible to do business. The demand is there, but the company can't afford to bring over more products. 'We only have a limited amount of inventory left, and without some relief, we'll run out soon,' Umlauf said. As a small business owner who has worked hard to develop a high-quality brand, create jobs and contribute to the community, Umlauf is frustrated. He has tried to contact the White House and other decision-makers to ask for small business support. But he's gotten zero response. 'It's time for policymakers to consider the full impact of trade policies not just on stock prices or global competitiveness, but on the real people running small businesses,' he said.
The Independent
29-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
'Nowhere to turn': Small businesses dependent on imports from China are feeling more desperate
Major orders canceled. Containers of products left stranded overseas. No roadmap for what comes next. The Trump administration raised tariffs on goods from China to 145% in early April. Since then, small business owners who depend on imports from China to survive have become increasingly desperate as they eye dwindling inventory and skyrocketing invoices. President Donald Trump seemed to back down somewhat last week when he said he expected the tariffs to come down 'substantially.' That helped set off a rally in the stock market. But for small businesses that operate on razor-thin margins, the back and forth is causing massive upheaval. Some say they could be just months from going out of business altogether. The Massachusetts family-owned game company Game makers are particularly susceptible to the tariffs since the majority of games and toys sold in the U.S. are made in China, according to The Toy Association. WS Game Co., based in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, is a family-owned business that licenses Hasbro board games like Monopoly, Candy Land and Scrabble and creates deluxe versions of them. Its most popular line of games come in boxes that look like vintage books and sell for $40. The company's games were featured in Oprah's Favorite Things list in 2024 and sold in 14,000 stores in North America, from big national chains to mom-and-pop stores, said owner Jonathan Silva, whose father founded the company in 2000. All of WS Game's production is done in China. The tariffs have brought the past 25 years of healthy growth to a screeching halt. Over the past three weeks, WS Game has had three containers of finished games, worth $500,000, stranded in China. It lost orders from three of the largest U.S. retailers totaling $16 million in business. And there's not much Silva can do about it. 'As a small business, we don't have the runway or the capabilities to move manufacturing on a whim,' said Silva, who has 22 employees. He said the tariffs have 'disrupted our business and put us on the verge of insolvency' and estimates he has about a four-month runway to stay afloat if nothing changes. 'We're really hoping that cooler heads prevail,' he said. Artificial flowers in Kentucky Jeremy Rice co-owns House, a home-décor shop in Lexington, Kentucky, that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home. About 90% of the flowers his business uses are made in China. Rice uses dozens of vendors. The largest are absorbing some of the cost of the tariffs and passing on the rest. One vendor is raising prices by 20% and another 25%. But Rice is expecting smaller vendors to increase prices by much higher percentages. House offers mid-range artificial flowers. A large hydrangea head will retail for $10 to $16, for example. China is the only place that manufacturers higher quality silk flowers. It would take a vendor years to open a factory in a different country or move production somewhere else, Rice said. Rice ordered his holiday décor early this year. But even after stocking up ahead of the tariffs, he only has enough everyday floral inventory in to last two to three months. 'After that, I don't know what we're going to do,' he said. Rice is concerned that the trade war will wipe out a bunch of mom-and-pop stores, similar to what happened in the Great Recession and the pandemic. 'There's nowhere to turn, there's nothing to do,' he said. Tea in Michigan A tea shop in a Michigan college town is also caught in the middle of the ongoing tariff fight. 'It's basically just put a big pit in my stomach,' said Lisa McDonald, owner of TeaHaus, located in Ann Arbor, home to the University of Michigan. McDonald has owned TeaHaus for nearly 18 years and sells tea to customers across the U.S. Americans drank about 86 billion servings of tea in 2024, according to the Tea Association of the U.S.A.. Almost all of that is imported since tea isn't grown in the U.S. at scale, due to factors ranging from climate to cost. McDonald imports loose-leaf tea from China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and other countries. She says her customer base is 'from all over the U.S. and the world." But she worries there is a limit to what they'll spend. Her premium teas can cost up to $33 for a 50-gram bag. 'I don't think I can charge $75 for a 50-gram bag of tea, no matter how amazing that tea is,' she said. McDonald understands Trump's rationale for wanting to use tariffs to spur U.S. manufacturing but says it doesn't apply to the tea industry. 'We can't grow tea in the U.S. to the extent that we need. We can't just flip the industry and 'make tea great again' in America. It just can't happen,' she said. Car accessories in Oklahoma Jim Umlauf's business, 4Knines, based in Oklahoma City, makes vehicle seat covers and cargo liners for dog owners and others. To do so, he needs raw materials such as fabric, coatings and components from China. Umlauf has explored manufacturing in countries other than China since 2018, when Trump first instituted a 25% tariff on goods from China, but has run into complications. In the meantime, 4Knines absorbs the extra cost, which Umlauf says has limited its growth and squeezed its margins. Now, the new tariffs make it nearly impossible to do business. The demand is there, but the company can't afford to bring over more products. 'We only have a limited amount of inventory left, and without some relief, we'll run out soon,' Umlauf said. As a small business owner who has worked hard to develop a high-quality brand, create jobs and contribute to the community, Umlauf is frustrated. He has tried to contact the White House and other decision-makers to ask for small business support. But he's gotten zero response. 'It's time for policymakers to consider the full impact of trade policies not just on stock prices or global competitiveness, but on the real people running small businesses,' he said. ___
