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The Club PUBlication 10/28/2019

10/28/2019

BUSINESS 563932802
California declares state of emergency over wildfires, winds
By TERENCE CHEA and DAISY NGUYEN Associated Press

OCTOBER 27, 201

Gallery: Flames from the Kincade Fire consume Soda Rock Winery on Sunday, Oct 27, 2019, in Healdsburg, Calif.

SANTA ROSA, California — California's governor declared a statewide emergency with nearly 200,000 people ordered to flee their homes because of wildfires fueled by historic winds, while millions were without electricity after the largest utility cut power in some areas as a precaution to prevent other fires.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that officials are deploying "every resource available" to respond to the wildfires, including a large blaze in Northern California's wine country driven by powerful winds.

Smoke from a second wildfire in the San Francisco Bay Area briefly halted traffic on a bridge. The flames came dangerously close to homes in Vallejo. In the south, a wildfire in the Santa Clarita area near Los Angeles has destroyed 18 structures, threatened homes and critical infrastructure.

The biggest evacuation was in Sonoma County where 180,000 people were told to pack up and leave.

The fear that the winds could blow embers and spread fire across a major highway prompted authorities to expand evacuation orders that covered parts of Santa Rosa, a city of 175,000 that was devastated by a wildfire two years ago. The latest evacuation orders came after Pacific Gas & Electric shut off power to 2.3 million people across 36 counties starting Saturday evening.

"This is the largest evacuation that any of us ... can remember," the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office tweeted Sunday morning. "Take care of each other."

Woodbridge firefighter Joe Zurilgen passes a burning home as the Kincade Fire rages in Healdsburg, Calif., on Sunday, Oct 27, 2019

Hundreds of people arrived at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa throughout the night and into Sunday morning. Some came from senior care facilities. More than 300 people slept inside an auditorium filled with cots and wheeled beds. Scores of others stayed in a separate building with their pets.
Among them was Maribel Cruz, 19, who packed up her dog, four cats and fish as soon as she was told to flee from her trailer in the town of Windsor, which is about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of San Francisco. She also grabbed a neighbor's cat.

"I'm just nervous since I grew up in Windsor," she said. "I'm hoping the wind cooperates."

Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick pleaded with residents in the evacuation zone that stretched from the wine country to Bodega Bay on the coast to get out immediately, citing the 24 lives lost when fire swept through the region in October 2017.

"Although I've heard people express concerns that we are evacuating too many people, I think those concerns are not valid at this point," Essick said at a news conference Sunday, noting that the winds pushed fire toward the towns of Healdsburg and Windsor overnight.

Dani Foster, of Santa Rosa, went to the fairgrounds after moving only about a mile every hour in a traffic jam on the freeway headed out of town.

"To think of (the fire) coming over Healdsburg and Windsor and into Santa Rosa, that's a little overwhelming and scary," she said. "You don't want it to be that big."

The Healdsburg area lost one of its historic attractions to the flames Sunday when embers carried by the winds sparked a blaze that engulfed the Soda Rock Winery whose buildings included a general store and post office founded in 1869. The winery was about 10 miles (16 kilometers) outside the town of Healdsburg.

The Kincade Fire began Wednesday night and is only 10% contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Sunday. It has burned 47 square miles (122 sq. kilometers) and has destroyed 79 structures.

Fire officials said about 30,000 firefighters took an aggressive stance overnight to keep the fire from spreading.

The fire was expected to be especially unwieldly Sunday due to powerful winds gusting at up to 80 mph (129 kph) on hillsides. The wind event was expected to last until Monday, the National Weather Service said.

Fire officials said the winds could potentially spark spot fires up to a mile away. They feared that if it crosses U.S. 101, the fire could spread westward to an area that hasn't had a fire in 80 years.

"The fuel in that area is extremely dense, they're extremely old and dry," said Steve Volmer, a fire behavior analyst with CalFire.

Meanwhile, another blaze erupted Sunday on both sides of a San Francisco Bay Area freeway and quickly spread, coming dangerously close to homes in Vallejo, which is 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) south of Geyserville where the massive Kincade Fire is burning.

A live broadcast on KGO-TV showed the fire on both sides of Interstate 80 near Vallejo and homeowners using hoses on a hillside to try and fight it. Smoke from the wildfire forced a freeway to close and the evacuation of California State University Maritime Academy.

Evacuations also hit inmates at the North County Detention Facility in Santa Rosa and about 100 Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital patients.

NOAH BERGER, ASSOCIATED PRESS Flames from the Kincade Fire consume Soda Rock Winery on Sunday, Oct 27, 2019, in Healdsburg, Calif.

To the south, a wildfire dubbed the Tick Fire destroyed 18 structures Thursday in the Santa Clarita area north of Los Angeles. Nearly all the 50,000 residents ordered to evacuate were allowed back home after Santa Ana winds began to ease.
Marcos Briano found destroyed homes on his street.
"I'm thankful that nothing happened to my house, but I feel bad for my neighbors," Briano, 71, said Saturday.
As of Sunday, the Tick Fire was 65% contained.

What sparked the current fires is unknown, but PG&E said a 230,000-volt transmission line near Geyserville malfunctioned minutes before that blaze erupted Wednesday night.

The utility acknowledged a tower malfunction prompted a strategy change for determining when to kill high-voltage transmission lines, Andrew Vesey, CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said Friday.

The possible link between the wine country fire and a PG&E transmission line contained grim parallels to last year when most of the town of Paradise burned, killing 85 people in the deadliest U.S. blaze in a century.

State officials concluded a PG&E transmission line sparked that fire.

PG&E said this weekend's shut-off was affecting about 940,000 homes and businesses. The city of San Francisco was not in line for a blackout amid shut-offs for most of the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area, the wine country to the north and the Sierra foothills.

Many residents facing blackouts had barely recovered from a previous shut-off that cost some businesses tens of thousands of dollars in losses.
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Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Julie Watson in San Diego contributed to this report. Nguyen reported from San Francisco.

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The Club PUBlication 10/21/2019

10/21/2019

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BUSINESS 563395242
Efforts to deport 'Dreamers' gets pushback. On economic grounds, large firms ask high court to reject Trump effort.

By Jim Spencer Star Tribune
OCTOBER 20, 2019 — 12:17AM

Protecting Dreamers is a “sound economic policy that acquires workers for the economy and makes an effort to address immigration problems,” said Steve Billet, a former AT&T lobbyist.

WASHINGTON – Several prominent Minnesota businesses are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to block a Trump administration plan to allow deportation of residents brought into the country illegally as children.

Best Buy, Target, Ecolab, Cargill, UnitedHealth Group and C.H. Robinson are among thousands of American companies signed on individually or through trade groups to a friend of the court brief filed earlier this month. The brief strongly criticizes the Trump plan on economic grounds. It urges preservation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program set up by the Obama administration in 2012. The program lets young people known as Dreamers stay in the country to pursue education and jobs.

This includes hundreds of thousands who have spent virtually their entire lives in the U.S. protected by a policy heretofore honored by Republicans and Democrats.
Best Buy and Target signed on individually to the Supreme Court brief filed in anticipation of a November hearing on DACA.

“We know that there are Best Buy employees, customers and teens we support through our Teen Tech Centers who are Dreamers,” Best Buy spokesman Jeff Shelman told the Star Tribune. “We believe that finding a permanent solution to enable these young people to continue to live and work in the United States is the right thing to do.”

In an e-mail, Target stressed a commitment to “diversity and inclusion.”

Making the case for ‘Dreamers’

An amicus brief filed by 125 U.S. businesses and 18 trade groups includes these estimates for economic impact of residents brought into the country illegally as children, sometimes referred to as Dreamers:

Total participating in the economy because of DACA: 825,000

Business income in 2015 : $658.7 million
Annual spending power : $24.1 billion
Federal taxes paid per year : $5.7 billion
State and local taxes paid per year: $3.1 billion

“We welcome people of all backgrounds to engage with our brand as team members or guests,” the company said. “By embracing equal opportunities for all, we can better understand and serve our guests, connect to the communities we serve and build a stronger team. Target is joining many other companies in asking Congress to pass legislation that provides a permanent solution for DACA recipients. We will also continue to offer resources and support to any of our Target team members who are seeking it.”

The criteria for avoiding deportation under DACA is strict. Applicants who have graduated from high school or served in the military can be considered.

They must not have been convicted of a serious crime; be fingerprinted; supply a home address, and submit to a background check in addition to paying roughly $500 in fees.

DACA opponents said the program rewards illegal behavior. Republicans have split over the issue, with some endorsing legislation that offers a permanent path to citizenship and others insisting that DACA’s continued existence and Dreamers’ fate must be tied to stricter border controls. The issue is contentious enough that the government shut down briefly in 2017 when some members of Congress demanded a solution included in a bill to keep the government funded.

The Trump administration has taken a number of steps to curb immigration and remove people in the country illegally. In announcing plans to end DACA, the Department of Homeland Security said it overstepped its regulatory bounds in running the program. The White House also maintains that the president has the power to administratively kill it. The justices will determine whether ending the program is an administrative function over which the court and Congress have no jurisdiction.

The friend of the court brief includes the names of 125 individual companies and 18 trade groups. Huge business organizations such as the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, all of which have Minnesota members, pushed back hard against the White House plan to kill DACA.

The brief argues that Homeland Security has the power to run the program and that DACA “resembles deferred action programs adopted in the past.” The brief says ending DACA “will inflict serious harm on U.S. companies, all workers, and the American economy as a whole.”

University of Minnesota professor Art Rolnick, a former senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, thinks “a clear business case and a strong economic case” can be made for keeping DACA.

“Certainly it’s the right thing to do [morally],” he said. But a shortage of skilled workers is hurting the U.S. economy and Dreamers are generally the kinds of achievers who can help. “Our economy is based on immigrants who come here and succeed in a capitalist competitive market,” Rolnick said. “I would expect companies to step up.”

The business brief says DACA has brought 825,000 people “out of the shadows” and into the economy.

Target and Best Buy are not the only companies employing Dreamers, according to the brief. The list extends to a large majority of the nation’s top 25 companies. As entrepreneurs, the brief argues, Dreamers produced business income of $658.7 million in 2015, most of it from small, local companies. As consumers, the Dreamers collectively exercise annual spending power of $24.1 billion, the brief says.

One of the largest and most vocal advocates for DACA has been the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which is comprised of thousands of businesses. Minnesota-based Cargill, Ecolab, UnitedHealth Group and C.H. Robinson all command seats on the NAM board. Ecolab CEO Doug Baker sits on its executive committee.

“The DACA dispute is another example of our nation’s broken immigration system,” Baker told the Star Tribune. “Eliminating DACA would be a step in the wrong direction.”

Cargill and UnitedHealth deferred to NAM when asked to comment on DACA.

Companies have long used trade groups to express their concerns on controversial issues. Safety in numbers may be more important now than ever, said Steve Billet, a former AT&T lobbyist teaching in George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. Billet said Donald Trump’s unprecedented public attacks on those who cross him make corporations more hesitant to speak individually.

AT&T endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016, Billet explained. After Trump’s election, when the company tried to merge with Time Warner, the Justice Department opened an investigation and eventually filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the merger. The suit failed, but Billet said the message to businesses who buck the president came through loud and clear. “There is,” he said, “quite a bit more fear.
And in the case of DACA, the risks are greater.

Protecting Dreamers is a “sound economic policy that acquires workers for the economy and makes an effort to address immigration problems,” Billet said. “But immigration is Trump’s issue.”

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The Club PUBlication 10/14/2019

10/14/2019

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NATIONAL 562
Has your newborn's identity already been stolen?

By BEV O'SHEA of NerdWallet Associated Press
OCTOBER 12, 2019 — 12:17AM

Imagine discovering that your newborn's brand new Social Security number has already been used to construct what Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, calls a "Frankenstein monster of identity."

Parents may discover their newborn's tarnished Social Security number when they try to use it to file taxes, apply for government benefits or attempt to freeze the baby's credit. Suddenly, an application or tax form is kicked back.

"And the parents go, 'What are you talking about?' They don't even know what this means," says Velasquez, whose nonprofit helps victims of identity theft. "And ... through no fault of their own, they're left holding the bag and they are the ones that are now responsible for cleaning up that mess."

AN IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM AT BIRTH?
The rise in synthetic identity theft — where criminals piece together a fake consumer — is an unintended consequence of Social Security number "randomization," which was initiated in 2011 to expand the pool of available numbers, she says.

Old Social Security numbers had clues to geography and birth dates in the digits. Randomizing the numbers made it harder for scammers to guess them — but also made it harder for creditors to spot the bogus use of a Social Security number on an application.

Before randomization, criminals typically purchased minors' Social Security numbers on the black market or tracked down the numbers of dead children. But now, sometimes the number "is just completely made up," Velasquez says. Fraud-detection measures used previously have become ineffective because it's no longer possible to pair a Social Security number with a location or approximate age.

Criminals often start with a not-yet-issued Social Security number to create a fake identity. If it works, the number becomes attached to a credit file for a consumer who doesn't exist.

HOW THE NUMBER GETS IN THE CREDIT SYSTEM
"You can create a credit file with almost nothing," says Adam Levin, chairman and founder of CyberScout, a company offering identity theft education and resolution services. When a credit card application with a previously unused Social Security number arrives, a new credit file is started based on the information in that application.

The thief often starts small, say, with a card marketed to credit newbies, then builds on that to get more accounts with bigger credit limits. Then, they suddenly max out all the accounts — a "bust-out" scheme — and walk away, leaving the accounts to go to collections and never to be paid. The child's credit reputation is left in tatters, but that's often not discovered until the child is old enough to apply for credit, by seeking a college loan, for example.

Velasquez says the solution lies in creating a process where financial institutions and other credit grantors can verify an applicant's name and number with the Social Security Administration for identity confirmation. That's in the works, she says.

IT'S ESSENTIAL TO FREEZE CREDIT
In the meantime, the best protection is to freeze kids' credit . While it's possible parents will discover that a child's Social Security number has already been used to build a synthetic identity, chances are it hasn't. (If it has, the sooner you clean up the mess , the better.)

Freezing a child's credit can prevent their Social Security number from being used to open bogus credit accounts. Both Levin and Velasquez say they "absolutely" recommend freezing a newborn's credit.
The mechanics are relatively simple. Parents will need to make and send copies of documents, including birth certificates, Social Security cards and government-issued identification, to each of the three major credit reporting bureaus.

Go online to Equifax and Experian to print out request forms to complete and mail in with the required copies of documents. The mailing address is on each form. TransUnion doesn't have an online form; instead, to request a freeze, write a letter and send document copies to TransUnion, P.O. Box 380, Woodlyn, PA 19094.

Each credit bureau will send confirmation of the freeze, as well as a personal identification number. The PINs will be needed to unfreeze the credit file, so it's essential to keep that information and store it in a secure place.
"Even if it is a little difficult, this is what parents should be doing," Levin says about freezing kids' credit.
_________________________________________________

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Bev O'Shea is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: boshea@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @BeverlyOShea.

RELATED LINKS:
How to freeze your child's credit: http://bit.ly/nerdwallet-child-identity-theft
Child identity theft https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0040-child-identity-theft#Repairaign=ct_prod https://www.idtheftcenter.org/darkweb-child-id-theft/

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The Club PUBlication 10/07/2019

10/7/2019

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Growth of faux meat in Twin Cities restaurants, markets coming from – gasp! – meat eaters
Plant-based alternatives are popping up in more Twin Cities restaurants and groceries.
By John Ewoldt Star Tribune staff

OCTOBER 5, 2019 — 8:53AM

ELIZABETH FLORES – STAR TRIBUNE An Impossible veggie burger at Union Depot Bar and Grill in St. Paul. Alt meats appeal to “flexitarians,” who seek more fruits and veggies, but also still eat meat.

Meagan Ludolph had no desire to try the plant-based Impossible Burger. “Why would I? It’s not meat,” she asked as she ate at Hell’s Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis last week.

An iron worker from near Peoria, Ill., who was in town for a convention, Ludolph describes herself as “a big burger, fries, tacos and baked potatoes person.”

Then a friend sent an Impossible Burger to her table for a taste test. “This is spectacular,” she said incredulously. “It smells and tastes like meat.”

Many meat-eaters are discovering the meat alternatives that have shown up in restaurants and on supermarket shelves over the past couple years. Even fast-food chains are adding plant-based burgers to the menu, while alt meats have grown to 2% of retail packaged meat sales.

The new meats don’t appeal just to vegans or vegetarians, but also “flexitarians” who want more protein, fruits and veggies and less meat. More than 90% of Americans who purchase a fake meat burger also eat meat, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Local restaurateurs said sales are good and getting stronger.
“We were the second restaurant in Minnesota to carry the Impossible Burger almost two years ago, and it quickly became a top seller at all of our restaurants,” said Luke Derheim, co-owner of Craft & Crew Hospitality, which owns six Twin Cities restaurants including the Howe and Stanley’s in Minneapolis and the Block opening this week in St. Louis Park.

Major players Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods were founded in Silicon Valley in 2009 and 2011, respectively, with Impossible offering soy-based burgers and Beyond using pea protein. Their success made alt meat a $4.6 billion industry last year, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets, with that expected to grow to $6.4 billion by 2023.

What makes them different from the oft-derided dry, tasteless veggie burgers is their mimicry of meat’s texture, taste and bloody juiciness. Instead of being made for vegetarians, they are made for meat eaters.
The two companies have been so successful that others are piling on to compete, including Tyson, Smithfield, Kellogg and Minnesota food giants Hormel and Cargill.

Local, independent early adopters such as Hell’s Kitchen and Craft & Crew had to endure shortages of Impossible Meat as the company brought on national clients such as Burger King and White Castle.

Derheim eventually switched to Beyond Meat products for a more consistent supply. “The two burgers are very different,” he said. “There is a different texture and taste profile that made some customers extremely happy and others not happy.”

Avoiding the ‘veto vote’
Even when a meatless burger isn’t a runaway best seller, many restaurants still want it on the menu to avoid what they call the veto vote.

“It’s when a couple or a group of friends is choosing a restaurant and one person says, ’There’s nothing at that restaurant for me. Let’s go somewhere else.’ Restaurants are adding plant-based products to become more veto proof,” said Darren Tristano, chief executive of Foodservice Results, a Chicago consulting firm.

That’s true at a burger-centric place like Burger Jones, where only 2% of burger sales in their Uptown and Burnsville stores come from Impossible Burgers. At organically focused Good Earth restaurants in Roseville and Edina, also part of Parasole Restaurant Holdings in Edina, Impossible sales are 14%.

Minnetonka-based Famous Dave’s is testing four alt-meat entrees to cast a wider net in attracting customers who may be weary of salads. Ten Minnesota locations and four Denver stores recently added barbecue nachos, tacos, a bowl and a tropical burger all made with Beyond Meat.

“We’re staying true to our barbecue silo, but testing alt-meat items, burgers, non-barbecue appetizers and desserts to broaden our universe of guests,” said Chief Executive Jeff Crivello. “Two years ago no one knew of an Impossible Burger or a Beyond Burger, and today they’re common knowledge.”

At a meat market like Famous Dave’s, Crivello doesn’t expect plant-based entrees to ever reach more than a couple percent of sales, but if it keeps individuals from vetoing the restaurant for a whole group, it’s worth it.

Higher prices on alt-meat products don’t appear to be scaring away customers. Prices start at $2 for an Impossible Slider at White Castle and about $8 for larger Impossible Whoppers at Burger King. Sit-down restaurants typically add one or two sides to the burger for prices between $13 and $16.

Catching on in stores
Local supermarkets are also seeing strong interest in alt meats, though they remain in the niche category. Plant-based meats represent about 2% of ground-beef sales at Lunds & Byerlys, but less than 1% of its entire meat department sales, said spokesman Aaron Sorenson.

Lunds & Byerlys, Cub and Hy-Vee, like most supermarkets nationwide, will add more faux meat products later this year and next
.
Darren Caudill, senior vice president of sales, merchandising and marketing at Cub, said alt meat makes up less than 1% of its meat sales, but it’s offering only four products so far — Beyond Meat grind, patties and a couple of breakfast meats.

That will expand when Impossible starts supplying Midwestern supermarkets and Smithfield’s Pure Farmland faux meatballs and sausage links hit the meat case. “This category is still in its infancy, but there’s a lot of curiosity about it,” Caudill said. “We’ll be doing more promotion and product sampling to address that.”

Hy-Vee offers several brands, including Beyond Meat brats, patties and ground, Hormel’s Happy Little Plants ground, and Awesome Burger by Nestlé in patties and grind starting last week. In 2020, it will add Pure Farmland meatballs and sausage.

In supermarkets, Beyond Meat patties sell for about $9 per pound at Aldi and about $10 to $12 per pound in bulk at other stores. Impossible Meat is charging about $12 per pound for grind in stores, but it is not yet available in Minnesota supermarkets.

Winning converts
Alt meat continues to polarize fans and foes. Conservative pundit and cattle breeder Glenn Beck expected to easily differentiate the Impossible Burger from a real beef burger when he did a blind taste test on his show in May. “This is insane,” he said, after choosing the Impossible Burger over the real thing. “I could go vegan.”

Arby’s, unlike any of its fast-food competitors, is countering the alt-meat interest with its “We have the meats!” advertising blitz. In May an Arby’s spokesman insisted that the company has no intention of adding plant-based meats now or in the future.

Alt-meat companies have one trend on their side: Nearly 20% of the adult population is trying to incorporate more plant-based foods into their diets. Because meatless burgers are plant based, many consumers assume the soy or pea-protein patties are healthier than red meat.

Nutritionists said that the highly processed burgers are often higher in sodium and saturated fat than ground beef. Their real advantage, the alt-meat companies said, is that their products leave a lighter environmental footprint, using far less water and land than cattle.

“When we first starting selling their product a couple of years ago, Impossible Foods sat us down and said not to promote it as a veggie burger or vegetarian,” said Cynthia Gerdes, co-owner of Hell’s Kitchen. “They said to position it as an environmentally smart product. On our menu we say, ‘You’ve never tasted plants like this.’ ”

jewoldt@startribune.com 612-673-7633

John Ewoldt is a business reporter for the Star Tribune. He writes about small and large retailers including supermarkets, restaurants, consumer issues and trends, and personal finance.

jewoldt@startribune.com 612-673-7633 StribEwoldt

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