Latest news with #FerrisWheel
The Standard
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Standard
Melco to close four entertainment venues in Macau
A general view of Melco Crown's Studio City, as a 130m high Ferris wheel is seen on top of the resort, in Macau, China October 26, 2015. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Things you didn't know were invented in Illinois
CHICAGO (WGN) — When it comes to groundbreaking inventions in the Land of the Lincoln, Illinois is no stranger to life-changing innovations. The Ferris Wheel, the Skyscraper, and even dentistry are just some of the state's key innovations. But do some exist that you may not know about? WGN-TV has compiled a short list of items that originated in Illinois: The inventor of the mobile phone, Chicago native Martin Cooper, made the first call on April 6, 1973. The Motorola researcher and executive is primarily regarded as the 'father of the cell phone' because he led the team behind the invention. According to following the belief that the cell phone should be portable and not solely operable in automobiles, Cooper and his team developed the DynaTAC (Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) phone, which was 23 cm (9 inches) tall and weighed 1.1 kg (2.5 pounds). The phone is often referred to as a brick phone due to its resemblance. Users paid $3,500 for the phone, equivalent to more than $25,000 in today's dollars, based on inflation. The delicious 'Golden Child' of Hostess was invented on April 6, 1930, at Continental Baking Company in western suburban Schiller Park. According to the Hostess, baker James Alexander Dewar was behind the idea of sponge cakes, with the original filling consisting of banana-flavored cream filling, and later replaced by the vanilla cream filling that generations have grown to love. Dewar noticed shortbread pans not in use and came up with the idea. The name Twinkie also stems from a billboard near the production plant that bore the name 'Twinkle Toe Shoes.' The Twinkie now comes in various flavors and remains a popular snack among Illinoisans and beyond. Edward Seymour is credited with inventing spray paint in west suburban Sycamore in 1949. According to Seymour created the first aerosolized spray paint can by inventing a novelty spray can to demonstrate an aluminum paint he had made for painting steam radiators. Based on the same principle as spray deodorizers and insecticides, the device featured a small can of paint equipped with an aerosol propellant and fitted with a spray head. 'Soon after perfecting the first spray can, Ed and the employees of his new company formulated the paint, which was mixed and filled with aerosol using a combination of customized and specially engineered machinery.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Despite few tariff impacts to date, SC Ports users fear what might be ahead
The OOCL Iris container ship based in China is the largest vessel to visit the Port of Charleston, able to carry up to 16,828 cargo containers measured in 20 foot increments. (Photo by Matthew Peacock/Provided by S.C. State Ports Authority) CHARLESTON — President Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies are roiling global trade, forcing South Carolina businesses and nearly every sector of the state's logistics network to question where they go from here. 'It was like stopping a Ferris Wheel, and you're sitting at the top,' maritime industry analyst Jim Newsome, former president of the S.C. State Ports Authority, said of the frozen future many industries are facing since Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff announcements on April 2. 'Everybody is bracing for the impact,' he said. Unlike their West Coast counterparts, the Port of Charleston has yet to see any major impacts from the Chinese shipping slowdown resulting from Trump's 145% tariffs on that country's imports. That's because transits to West Coast ports are shorter, and those ports typically have a much greater exposure to Chinese goods. Year-over-year cargo levels measured by the equivalent of 20-foot-long containers — or TEUs in maritime jargon — moving through Charleston's terminals have held steady or even increased this spring as retailers and others frontloaded shipments ahead of the tariffs. That's about to change, analysts say, because cargo that takes weeks to arrive along the East Coast will now be hit with the tariffs. By June, ports in Charleston, Savannah and along the East Coast could see noticeable drops in cargo if tariff policies don't change. On average, about half of the freight bound for Charleston's port either originates in or has major stops in China, which reported Friday that April shipments to the U.S. dropped by 21%. Ocean liners in recent weeks have canceled about 17% of the container ships scheduled to travel to East Coast ports because of cargo shortages, according to Copenhagen-based maritime research group Sea-Intelligence. Flexport, a San Francisco-based leader in supply chain management, says at least one weekly container service calling on Charleston has suspended trips altogether through mid-June. Barbara Melvin, president and CEO of the State Ports Authority that owns and operates the Port of Charleston, declined to comment on tariff impacts. But John McCown, a non-resident senior fellow at Arlington, Va.-based Center for Maritime Strategy, has a bleak outlook. 'I'm thinking a 25% overall (drop in cargo) could be conservative if things stay the way they are,' said McCown, author of the John McCown Container Report. 'I suspect the actual numbers will show reduced economic activity across the entire container shipping supply chain that will touch every port,' McCown said. 'In addition, the tariffs will also result in noticeable inflation.' Some cracks are already starting to show. A few trucking fleets at Charleston's port, particularly those that handle Chinese imports, are seeing as much as 30% to 40% slowdowns, according to Rick Todd, president and CEO of the South Carolina Trucking Association. 'General trucking remains in a 'worst ever' freight and rate trough,' he said. 'Combine that with relentless cost increases and we are finding smaller and more marginal fleets dropping like flies.' About three-fourths of cargo at Charleston's port moves by truck. 'The tariff/trade slowdown, with uncertainty, will exacerbate capacity leaving the market,' he said. Todd's counterpart in Georgia said that state is also 'starting to see some ripples' in trucking volumes. 'But I think probably in another two to three weeks those ripples are going to start to turn into waves,' Seth Millican, president and CEO of the Georgia Motor Trucking Association, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Georgia Ports Authority has also seen little impact to date from tariffs, posting record volumes in March. Griff Lynch, the authority's president and CEO, said the port is talking with customers about how to mitigate tariff costs and using Savannah's Garden City Terminal West to store containers and manage supply chain fluctuations. Railroads that serve Charleston's port say it's hard to measure future tariff impacts. 'Tariffs could be a headwind to volumes for the rest of the year,' Ed Elkins, executive vice president and chief commercial officer for Norfolk-Southern, told analysts. The biggest risk is an overall economic slowdown due to tariffs, he added. CSX Corp. CEO Joe Hinrichs said near-term demand is 'pretty strong' but 'the keyword you're hearing from everybody is uncertainty.' About half of all imports to the U.S. are parts needed by manufacturers, including the Palmetto State's $27 billion vehicle industry. Most of that cargo is moved by truck. Volvo Cars this week announced layoffs totaling 5% – roughly 100 people – at its Berkeley County manufacturing campus, citing 'challenging macro conditions' including tariff threats. 'The adjustment is due to changing market conditions and evolving trade policies, including tariffs,' a Volvo spokesperson said. 'Our aim is to build where we sell, and we will continue to balance our ongoing investments in the U.S. with the need to optimize costs and drive greater efficiency in the current environment.' Volvo also plans to add new models to its Lowcountry plant, which currently builds the battery-powered EX90 sport-utility vehicle, to offset tariffs on foreign-made cars. BMW – the state's largest automaker and the nation's top vehicle exporter, primarily through Charleston's port – said this week it has been making a case for tariff relief with White House officials but acknowledged the current status would have a 'notable' impact on its second-quarter earnings. Front-line workers at the port will also take a hit if tariffs lead to less cargo. The International Longshoremen's Association supplies thousands of dockworkers in Charleston, and those workers typically are paid only when there are ships to load and unload. The ILA, which supported Trump's election, has not issued any formal statement on tariffs. And Ken Riley, president of the union's Charleston branch, did not respond to a request for comment. Tariffs that are announced one day and paused or canceled days later are adding confusion to South Carolina's trade outlook. 'Nobody has an accurate crystal ball on the effect of these unprecedented catalysts,' McCown told Freightwaves. Some of the biggest import commodities at Charleston's port are Chinese tariff targets, including toys, apparel, footwear, televisions and other electronics. Combined with a 10% universal tariff on goods from most other countries, U.S. imports are projected to plummet. Analysts disagree on how big the drop will be. The National Retail Federation puts the number at 20%. JP Morgan pegs it at up to 80%. Walmart, which operates a 3 million-square-foot import distribution center in Ridgeville that supplies goods to 850 stores, said it is negotiating prices directly with overseas suppliers to blunt tariff impact. Smaller businesses don't have that luxury. 'It's clear this is going to be a severe problem for small businesses because they don't have the capacity to make bulk purchases or change their supply chains,' said Frank Knapp, president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. 'You're going to see businesses shutting down.' Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary and a South Carolina native, is in Switzerland this weekend meeting with Chinese officials to talk trade. Bessent has said he doesn't expect a major breakthrough, telling Fox News: 'My sense is that this will be about de-escalation.' Trump preempted Bessent's talks Friday by posting on his Truth Social account that 80% tariffs on Chinese goods 'sounds right' – the first indication that his stance is softening. But lowering tariffs from 145% to 80% tariffs is still unsustainable and unlikely to move the needle on trade. Newsome, the former port director-turned-president of Jim Newsome 3 consultants, said Trump's tariffs are based on the flawed premise that they will bring manufacturing back to the United States. 'Forget about it,' he said. 'You might be able to bring back some high-value manufacturing with a high potential for automation. But it's never going to be the case that you're going to bring a toy made in China back to the United States.' There's also no way to balance trade with China, he said, because that country 'doesn't have the consumption power we do.' The per-capita U.S. income of $43,289 is more than 7.5 times greater than China's. 'How do you balance that?' he said. 'I think that kind of narrative got us off on the wrong foot.' Newsome said he's hopeful that reality is finally getting through to the president, and he thinks there will be too much pressure from retailers and other businesses for Trump's China policy to persist. Retailers need holiday-shopping goods in their warehouses this summer, and they aren't likely to sit by quietly if tariffs interrupt those shipments. 'The best outcome, the hopeful outcome, would be they have a good discussion (in Switzerland) and agree that things got out of hand a bit,' Newsome said. 'Let's push the tariffs off for 90 days to give some time to negotiate. That gets us past the Christmas shipping season.' McCown agrees there will be intense political pressure to end the Chinese tariff war, but he's skeptical that cooler heads will prevail. 'At all times and even before this nonsensical tariff policy went into effect, strong reasoned advice not to go down this path has been largely ignored,' he said.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Piatt declares ‘the end of the beginning' in getting last key vote to start Esplanade
No one said getting a major riverfront development off the ground would be quick and easy, but at least things are moving forward for the Esplanade on the North Shore. The political process of getting what's called the Manchester-Chateau Transit Revitalization Investment District to generate public financing for infrastructure took about six months to get full approval from three tax bodies, starting with the board of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh last November. Yet after Pittsburgh Public Schools and Allegheny County Council approved the new TRID in the last few weeks, Piatt Cos. CEO Lucas Piatt can consider that process a short chapter in a nearly 10-year slog to redevelop a 15-acre industrial patch of mostly mature industrial properties. The ultimate plan is for his mixed-use vision for Esplanade, a 1.7-million-square-foot riverfront destination of apartments, condos, restaurants, shopping and its signature attraction, a 200-foot-high Ferris Wheel. 'The last five years have been the toughest I've ever had in this business,' said Piatt, whose company kept the huge project, with a budget now expected to reach $740 million, alive through all the challenges of the pandemic as it now works through ongoing inflation issues and the cost threat of new tariffs. But the TRID approval now means the company will break ground on preparing the site this summer, with Piatt estimating site work will take about a year before Piatt Cos. shifts to vertical construction of the first phase. Click here to read more from our partners at the Pittsburgh Business Times. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Carnival Rides & Treats at Salmon Run Mall in May
Carnival Rides and Treats returns to the Salmon Run Mall parking lot in May. The event takes place on the following dates and times: Friday, May 9, from 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday, May 10, from 1 to 9 p.m.; Sunday, May 11, from 1 to 6 p.m.; Thursday, May 15, from 4 to 9 p.m.; Friday, May 16, from 4 to 9 p.m.; and Saturday, May 17, from 1 to 9 p.m. Classic favorites, including the Tilt-a-Whirl, Scrambler, Ferris Wheel, plus cotton candy, candy apples, games of skill and chance. Save time, money and guarantee your unlimited ride bands with Pre-Sale Bands now on sale. Once you order your tickets, just show your phone at the redemption area, have your ticket scanned and receive your pre-purchased bands for the day. Unlimited bands are good for one day only. On the day of your choice, you can purchase a ticket for May 9, 10 or 11 here and tickets for May 15, 16 or 17 here. You can find more information on this event on Facebook or the Salmon Run Mall's website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
