Tag: News

Select samples of past news reporting, editing, and voice-over work for media outlets

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Behind the scenes at China TV: soft power and state propaganda

I spoke to the Financial Times for an article on China’s Communist Party-controlled international broadcaster CGTN. The article was five months in the making. The Financial Times eventually spoke to 12 former CGTN employees like myself. I was the first person the reporter spoke to, and got the ball rolling on bringing others in as well. My decision to go on the record also encouraged others to do so (though most dared not). Here is an excerpt:

The primetime English-language news show by China’s state broadcaster was about to go on air when a copy editor in Beijing was handed a script that needed an urgent last-minute polish. Gary Anglebrandt’s job at China Global Television Network was to check for errors in grammar and spelling before passing the text to the on-duty laoshi — teacher in Mandarin — who controls all copy for political correctness before anything goes on air.

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Is The Era Of Meme Stocks And NFTs Already Over?

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.

With an excess of stimulus money and time on their hands, people’s attention landed on commission-free trading platforms, leading to an exuberant rise in prices this year.

Now, with vaccines rolling out, final stimulus checks being spent and warm weather returning, attention is returning to socializing and traveling.

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Robinhood Shortens Its Restricted-Securities List To 8 Stocks

Robinhood has updated its list of restricted stocks, and the list has grown much shorter than the 50 stocks it was at on Friday.

What Happened: Robinhood updated the “Changes due to ongoing market volatility” page on its site, where it maintains a list of the stocks it has placed buying restrictions on.

The list now shows just eight stocks, and the restrictions on some have been loosened up. Nokia Oyj NOK 8.18%, for example, has gone from a limit of five shares to 2,000. …

Read the full story at Benzinga.com and see the full list of items written for the trading news site at my author page.

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Tesla Takes Legal Action Against Chinese News Outlet

Tesla Model Y

Tesla Inc TSLA 4.48% is taking legal action againt a Chinese tech media outlet called PingWest that earlier reported of harsh working conditions and quality control problem at Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory.

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Finance and Trading News at Benzinga.com

I write and edit for stock-trading news site Benzinga.com, a great team of dedicated, hard-working professionals.

My latest work can be found here.

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Competitor To Tesla’s Ultracapacitor Company Raises $48M After Hinting At IPO

Photo courtesy Skeleton Technologies

Skeleton Technologies is not a publicly traded company, but it’s one to keep an eye on as it traverses territory partly claimed by Tesla Inc TSLA 2.25%.

Next-Gen Battery Business: The Estonian maker of ultracapacitors, also called supercapacitors, completed a Series D round of funding this month, raising $48.1 million. It raised a combined $38.7 million in earlier rounds. The company was founded in 2009 and counts the European Investment Bank among its investors.

The company’s website lists as competitors: St. Louis-based EaglePicher Technologies; Pennsylvania-based C&D Technologies; Germany-based IBC Solar; and, tantalizingly, Maxwell Technologies, which was bought by Tesla in 2019. …

Read the full story at Benzinga.com.

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Blue Water area navigates changing currents — including its own attitudes

The economy of St. Clair County has long lagged those of its metro Detroit neighbors to the south. But its biggest hurdle may be moving the mindset of its own residents.

High school graduates are as likely to head for the county border in search of greater opportunities as to stay, and residents see local leaders as just as likely to get in the way of new ideas as to encourage any. 

“The city didn’t get along with the county. The foundation stuck to itself. Everyone just did their own thing,” said Randy Maiers, president of the Community Foundation of St. Clair County.

But a spate of recent projects, totaling $234 million in planned or underway investment, has development officials touting a reversal of that trend. They say there’s a new appreciation for collaboration and making better use of the area’s natural asset, its water geography, to attract business. They aren’t predicting a massive economic boom or large-scale influx of new residents, but instead simply want to capitalize on what exists to create an improved quality of life for those who are there.

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Detroit’s manufacturing heritage continues Downriver

Many places in metro Detroit can strike a person as feeling like the real heart of the area. Woodward and Jefferson, Eight Mile, Grosse Pointe with its old money, Dearborn with its entanglement with Ford Motor Co. Oakland County has its moments.

But there’s something about Downriver. Poor, downtrodden, derided Downriver. It’s long been the butt of jokes for locals of the greater Detroit area, for reasons I only partially get, having come from the other far end of the area, Port Huron, another waterfront place that isn’t exactly known as a bastion of high culture.

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Costs of proposed natural gas pipelines may outweigh benefits

In 2017, two big natural gas pipelines are scheduled to go into service, increasing the volume of natural gas entering Michigan by up to 35 percent.

That’s the scenario developing out of separate proposals, one by the developers of Nexus, a $2 billion pipeline backed by Detroit-based DTE Energy Co., and the other by developers of Rover, a $4.2 billion pipeline backed by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP. 

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New pipeline to sit at Nexus of DTE’s far-flung operations

In the first quarter of next year, businesses and residents in Washtenaw, Lenawee and Monroe counties can expect to see construction begin on a pipeline that will bring natural gas from 250 miles away.

The Nexus pipeline is a joint-venture project between Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. and Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp., which are equally splitting the $2 billion project cost. Nexus will pipe natural gas sourced from Appalachian fracking fields in Ohio and Pennsylvania — part of the Marcellus and Utica shale basins that are among the country’s richest sources of natural gas.

Nexus will start in eastern Ohio, run across the Buckeye State and enter Michigan in Lenawee County before moving on to Monroe and Washtenaw counties. Fifty-five of the 250 miles will be in Michigan. 

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Bagger Dave’s slide: Burger chain goes into holding pattern after closings, missteps

Feb 15 2016 Bagger Daves front pageIf the past year is any indication, the future of Bagger Dave’s Burger Tavern is anything but in the bag.

The Southfield-based restaurant chain suffered the indignity of two rounds of restaurant closings in 2015. The first came in August, when parent company Diversified Restaurant Holdings Inc. shuttered three locations, all in Indiana, gnawing $1.8 million in writedowns off the corporate books.

Then in December, eight more locations closed, at a loss of about $10.7 million for writedowns and other costs. One of them was its downtown Detroit location. The others were in Indiana.

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Food for thought: As businesses crave space, Eastern Market looks to grow borders

Dec. 14, 2015 -- Eastern Market Development Lookback“Eastern Market gets hot,” read the front page of the Dec. 23, 1985, issue of Crain’s Detroit Business.

The story was about a spike in demand for properties as food companies built more warehouse space.

It’s a headline that would work just as well now. Retailers regularly announce shop openings in the district. The Saturday public market has grown under the management of Eastern Market Corp., the nonprofit established by the city in 2006. When TV advertisers co-opt the gritty Detroit comeback narrative, they never fail to include a shot of an Eastern Market shed.

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Implosion brings down ‘Mighty Marysville’ power plant

 The former DTE Energy Co. coal-fired power plant in Marysville fell Saturday morning as its 12 stories were imploded to make way for riverfront development.

The 300,000-square-foot plant on the banks of the St. Clair River carried the nickname the “Mighty Marysville.”

Check out this video of the implosion from the scene.

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Is STEM taking root? Despite efforts to meet the need for skilled trades workers, shortages remain

Michigan has gotten the hint: Employers need STEM-trained workers.

Efforts have been made to plug the gap by lots of stakeholders — high schools, community colleges, employer groups, nonprofits, workforce agencies, foundations and businesses. Yet the need for specific kinds of workers still exists.

“The issue has been out there long enough for people to have an understanding of it,” said Gary Farina, executive director of the Michigan STEM Partnership in Lansing. “It’s on their radar, and they’re out there seeing what they can do.”

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HoneyBaked Ham merger in works

Courtesy Honeybaked HamAfter two people at the company confirmed the deal, it issued a statement saying “it is our policy not to comment on speculation or rumors.”

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Martinizing acquisition makes Huntington largest dry-cleaning firm in US

Crain's Dec. 8, 2014 -- Huntington

The purchase last month of the Martinizing national dry-cleaning chain has more than doubled the size of a local dry-cleaning franchisor, making it the country’s largest.

Berkley-based The Huntington Co. LLC manages a slew of dry-cleaning-related entities and brands owned by partners Wayne Wudyka and Jeffrey Snyder. A steady march of acquisitions and launches already had made this family of companies one of the largest in the business.

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A $15B upgrade for utilities: New EPA rules stoke Consumers, DTE move to wind and gas

Aug. 4, 2014 -- Power Plants Cover

A $15 billion wave of energy infrastructure spending is headed to Michigan, so says the head of the state’s largest electric utility.

DTE Energy Co. CEO Gerry Anderson said the Environmental Protection Agency‘s recent carbon emissions proposal will usher in “the largest power sector renewal” the industry has seen since the oil shocks of the 1970s led utilities to move to coal and away from oil.

“This will be the biggest investment in power generation since that period,” he said.

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Driverless tech: First comes carriage … then the law

June 23, 2014 - Autonomous Driving LawWhen it comes to law, words matter, and their definitions matter even more.

The big problem with legal definitions surrounding driverless vehicle technology: There are none.

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‘A hero among us’: Banker’s counsel, influence aided rise of Detroit’s black business community

March 31, 2014 Aubrey Lee

Nowadays, no one would bat an eye to see an African-American sitting in the executive chair at a large bank.

It was different when Aubrey Lee started out in the 1950s in the segregated South.

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A city ‘ready to rise’: With state control looming, Highland Park sees signs of hope

Feb. 3, 2014 - Highland Park

Portions of the lettering on the distinctive Highland Appliance sign along Woodward Avenue are missing, and the red words have faded to pink.

Memorable to many metro Detroiters from the store’s TV commercials, the Highland Park store closed its doors after the 1993 bankruptcy of Highland Superstores Inc. The sign still hangs, but in a way that does little to kindle nostalgia about the store, or Highland Park, the city.

A drive by the now-vacant site, at first glance, could cause assumptions about the state of things in Highland Park.

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