Latest news with #states
Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Meta Clashes With Apple, Google Over Child Age Check Legislation
The biggest tech companies are warring over who's responsible for children's safety online, with billions of dollars in fines on the line as states rapidly pass conflicting laws requiring companies to verify users' ages. The struggle has turned into a struggle that's pitted Meta Platforms Inc. and other app developers against Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. 's Google, the world's largest app stores. Lobbyists for both sides are moving from state to state, working to water down or redirect the legislation to minimize their clients' risks.
The Standard
a day ago
- Politics
- The Standard
AAHK's independent funds grant $16mn to boost marine ecology and fisheries resources
Trump's new energy order puts states' climate laws in the crosshairs of the Department of Justice
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Do workforce development programs bridge the skills gap? Researchers say yes.
This story was originally published on HR Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily HR Dive newsletter. Workforce development programs — funded through public-private partnerships — appear to bridge the skills gap by helping companies to scale and expanding opportunities for less skilled workers, according to recent research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. After training, organizations had longer employment growth and down-skilling in job posts, as compared to a matched control group, the researchers found. They looked at 18 states with grant subsidies for training. 'The evidence we present suggests these grants resolve a skills gap which previously prevented firms from operating at optimal scale,' the researchers wrote. 'The fact that labor inputs change post grant receipt means that these grants are not purely crowding out private sector funds.' Typically, the researchers wrote, these workforce development programs operate with explicit goals of upskilling the state's workforce, especially in transferable skills that could apply across employers. In practice, the grants are more likely to be used in competitive labor markets, particularly based on the concentration of hiring firms or market tightness. In addition, the grants seem to be disproportionately allocated to larger and higher-paying firms and labor markets, as well as companies seeking to hire more skilled workers, the researchers found. Grants aren't typically used to even out prospects across neighboring markets or target emerging markets, they wrote. After receiving a training grant, companies tended to experience higher employment levels and reduce education and work experience requirements, the researchers found. Grants appeared to help companies shift to a long-term higher growth trajectory, potentially resolving specific skill shortages that blocked growth or training investments, they wrote. Notably, most organizations' training plans targeted professional skills, such as leadership and process management, which opened up recruitment for lower skilled roles post-training. This could mean that firms needed managerial skills to accomplish institutional change, and once achieved, they could focus on productivity growth through low-wage expansion, the researchers wrote. Beyond that, training focused on production-related skills, particularly pivoting employees to work with automation technology. In these cases, training likely helped with worker retention or avoided layoffs, the researchers wrote. Sign in to access your portfolio
Fast Company
2 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Cannabis drinks are taking market share and Big Alcohol is fighting back
Top alcohol makers have been sitting on the sidelines of a cannabis beverage boom, watching brands in the fast-growing category like Cann and Wynk make deals with beer and booze distributors, and gain valuable space on liquor store shelves. Now some alcohol companies, seeing their sales falter, are laying the groundwork to potentially enter the lucrative but risky market, a dozen founders of cannabis brands, ingredients suppliers and drinks manufacturers told Reuters. Drinks containing THC, the mood-altering ingredient in marijuana, are restricted to licensed dispensaries in 24 U.S. states where recreational use of pot is legal. But small amounts of THC can also be extracted from hemp, a crop that's related to marijuana but is legal federally. Beverages containing THC derived from hemp can be sold in many liquor shops, convenience stores and supermarkets. That's where Big Alcohol sees opportunity, despite some companies having been burned by past cannabis investments. Corona brewer Constellation Brands has been internally researching hemp-based cannabis drinks to weigh its next steps, a source familiar with the company's thinking said. Absolut vodka distiller Pernod Ricard has met with Brez, maker of drinks with THC derived from hemp, as recently as last month to discuss a possible investment, Brez's founder Aaron Nosbisch said. 'They did not invest now but are circling,' Nosbisch said. Pernod declined to comment on the meeting. Constellation Brands said it does not comment on rumors and speculation. Alcohol makers are still suffering a hangover following America's pandemic drinking binge, when sales spiked as cash-flush consumers splurged on pricey bottles of liquor for their homes, and then rushed back to bars when lockdown restrictions lifted. Alcohol sales have been falling ever since as inflation and interest rates rose and wallets became stretched. The companies also now face growing warnings from public health authorities who say drinking even small amounts of alcohol is associated with at least seven types of cancer. Overall U.S. beer volumes fell nearly 6% through May of this year, according to the Beer Institute. Volumes of spirits and wine sold in the same time period have declined by 5.6% and 9%, respectively, according to the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America. In a sign of tumult in the industry, the CEO of the world's biggest alcohol maker, Diageo, stepped down last week as the company struggles to revive growth. But hemp-based drinks are expanding fast. The market for drinks infused with THC from hemp is projected to top $1 billion in sales this year, according to market research firm Euromonitor, and climb past $4 billion in 2028. Molson Coors CEO Gavin Hattersley told Reuters in January he'd be naive to say THC beverages aren't having an effect 'at least in a small way.' Tilray Brands, the fourth-largest U.S. craft brewer with brands including Montauk and Shock Top, is selling its new hemp-derived THC seltzers through its beer distributors such as United Distributors in Georgia, executives told Reuters in an interview. The company's THC drinks are for sale in 13 states. 'There's not a real leader that's taken ahold of the (market) so far, and that's what we look to do,' Tilray's CEO Irwin Simon told Reuters earlier this year. Others, including Heineken's Lagunitas brand and Pabst Blue Ribbon, the fifth-largest U.S. brewer, have lent their names to THC seltzers for sale in dispensaries in California. Lagunitas is looking to grow distribution of its THC seltzer, potentially using hemp, to other states, a representative from Cannacraft, its ingredient supplier, said. A spokesperson for Lagunitas said it has no immediate plans to expand, but monitors market development and looks for opportunities as consumer tastes and regulations change. Boston Beer, the maker of Sam Adams, is one of the brewers with the clearest path to eventually enter the U.S. cannabis drinks market although it has not provided a time frame for doing so. The company is already selling its Teapot brand of THC-infused tea in Canada where weed is legal, and in the last year tested a potential U.S. version made from THC derived from hemp. To test the reformulated product, a panel of trained sensory experts sampled Teapot with both THC from hemp and marijuana, and could not taste a difference, said the company's head of cannabis, Paul Weaver. 'This is a source of growth for our organization, flat out,' Weaver said. CAUTIOUS MOVES Big Alcohol is treading carefully in cannabis drinks because state and federal regulations have shifted, and could change again, said five executives at ingredients suppliers and THC beverage brands. California, which has legal weed, banned hemp-based drinks last year to try to prevent children from consuming them. Other states have introduced special taxes or restricted sales, ambiguity that has held alcohol companies back from entering the market. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who helped first legalize hemp in 2018 to support farmers in his home state of Kentucky, in July introduced a provision in a government spending bill that could ban intoxicating products using the plant. McConnell wrote in an op-ed published in the Louisville Courier Journal on July 17 that his efforts are aimed at keeping THC gummies that look like familiar candies out of the hands of children. He did not provide comment beyond the op-ed. Big brewers have been burned by past cannabis investments. In 2022, the biggest U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch inBev exited a deal with Tilray to research cannabis drinks in Canada. The same year, Molson Coors shuttered its U.S. business selling beverages infused with CBD, a compound in marijuana and hemp that does not have psychoactive effects, citing an uncertain regulatory environment. Constellation Brands restructured its investment in Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth last year after poor sales. Now, however, hemp-based THC drinks are sold widely. Beyond beer's declining sales, brewers face an additional squeeze from tariffs, which threaten to push up prices for imported drinks, and Hispanic consumers, who are staying home due to fears of U.S. immigration enforcement. HIGH MARGINS Liquor stores are embracing the buzzy beverages to boost their margins as the drinks, typically more expensive than a six-pack of beer, start to outsell other types of alcohol. Jon Halper, CEO of Minnesota liquor store chain Top Ten Liquors, told Reuters in June that THC beverages now make up 15% of his business after the company introduced them two years ago. By next year, they could grow to rival wine, currently in the mid twenty percent of his sales, he said. The drinks take shelf space mostly from beer because they are in coolers, Halper said. The margins on cannabis beverages are higher than those for beer and spirits, helping his firm offset softening alcohol sales. Charleston, South Carolina-based Southern Horizon Logistics, a sister company of Budweiser distributor Southern Crown Partners, is now selling more hemp-based drinks than wine and spirits, said Justin Ashby, the company's chief administrative officer. Ryan Moses, CEO of Nashville, Tennessee-based beer, wine and spirits distributor Best Brands, said that growth from THC-infused drinks has helped offset flat and declining alcohol sales. Instead of possible layoffs, Moses has been able to re-allocate employees to the new category. 'It could be as big as the other categories five to 10 years from now,' Moses said. Consumers like Josh Goldberg, 39, of Lindenhurst, New York, are also trading out beer and tequila for THC seltzers. Goldberg made the switch almost two years ago, and hasn't had a drink since. 'It replaces the physical act of drinking with drinking something else,' Goldberg said. Halper, the owner of Minnesota liquor stores, said the customers buying THC-infused drinks tend to skew female and over the age of 35.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
ACA insurers propose biggest premium hikes since 2018 as Trump policies take hold
Affordable Care Act insurers are proposing their steepest premium increases since 2018, driven in part by the looming expiration of Biden-era enhanced premium subsidies and by the Trump administration's tariffs, a new KFF analysis has found. Insurers are asking for a typical rate increase of 15% with more than a quarter proposing hikes of 20% or more. KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group, looked at 105 Obamacare insurers in 19 states and the District of Columbia that have filed rates so far. Steep rate increases in 2018 were also fueled by Trump administration policies, which were focused on weakening the ACA during the president's first term after Republicans in Congress failed to repeal it in 2017. While rising health care costs account for about half of the coming year's proposed increases, two other forces under the control of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are also driving up rates, KFF found. The expiration of the enhanced ACA premium subsidies at the end of this year is prompting many insurers to hike rates by an additional 4%, on average. Insurers are concerned that the disappearance of this beefed-up assistance will prompt many, largely healthier consumers to drop their coverage — leaving sicker, costlier policyholders on the exchanges. Initially created by the Democrats' American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, the enhanced premium subsidies enable lower-income enrollees to sign up for coverage with very low or no monthly premiums. Also, middle-income Americans can qualify for assistance for the first time. The Biden administration repeatedly said the more generous subsidies allow the majority of enrollees to select plans that cost less than $10 a month. The enhanced subsidies helped drive Obamacare signups to a record 24 million people for 2025. Most enrollees qualify for subsidies, which greatly lower their monthly premium payments. But once the beefed-up assistance lapses, those payments are expected to spike by 75%, on average, KFF said. Trump and GOP lawmakers did not include an extension of the subsidies in their 'big, beautiful bill' and it remains to be seen whether they push for it in subsequent legislation. However, the clock is ticking since insurers are currently finalizing their rates, and the Obamacare federal and state exchanges need time to prepare for open enrollment, which starts on November 1. Several states are highlighting the looming loss of the enhanced subsidies as driving up insurers' proposed rates on their exchanges. In Maryland, for instance, carriers have requested an overall average premium change of 17.1%, the highest since 2019. If Congress extends the enhanced subsidies, the rate increases would be 7.9%, on average, according to the Maryland Insurance Administration, which is looking into creating a state-sponsored subsidy to offset some of the premium increases. Also, some insurers are pointing to the tariffs that the Trump administration has promised to impose on pharmaceutical imports, KFF said. Those that cite tariffs say the levies will add 3% to their premium proposals. The rate filings, however, do not mention specific impacts of the 'big, beautiful bill' because insurers generally had to submit their proposals prior to the bill being signed into law on July 4. Those that mention it point to the uncertainty it is causing, said Cynthia Cox, director of KFF's Program on the ACA. 'We're going to be watching over the next few weeks whether insurers come back and say, 'the big, beautiful bill passed, and here's how we think that might affect our premiums,'' she said. The filings also don't take into account the provisions in a rule that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized in late June that will make several changes to Obamacare, including shortening the open enrollment period, increasing verification requirements and limiting the ability of low-income Americans to sign up for coverage year-round. The measures are a 'mixed bag' for insurers in terms of how it might affect premiums, Cox said. One major insurer has already announced its departure from the Affordable Care Act in 2026. Aetna said in May that it would stop selling plans on the individual market because 'it became clear we would not be able to provide the same level of value we've offered in prior years,' the company said on its website. The insurer also left the Obamacare exchanges in 2018 but later returned. Insurers' 2026 rates are preliminary and are subject to change, particularly in states that run their own exchanges, where state regulators have more of a say in setting the final rates. The final rates should be published later this summer, and consumers will be able to view plan premiums shortly before open enrollment starts.
