Blogs

Washington State legislature has passed “Clean Cars 2030,” a bill setting a goal to require all light-duty vehicles of the model year 2030 or later to be electric. The bill passed as part of a larger package directing utilities to prepare the state for all-electric transportation. With this bill, Washington State becomes the first US state to pass a gas car ban legislatively (as opposed to by executive order), and now has the earliest gas car ban in the US. California and Massachusetts also p...

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita-based aerospace supply company with a facility in Everett, Wash., has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following losses it blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic and suspension of Boeing's 737 Max plane. The Wichita Eagle reports that TECT Aerospace filed for the protection on Tuesday, which also covers the company's facilities in Park City, Wellington, and Everett. It does not cover a facility in Nashville, Tennessee. The company said in its filings that ...

Viet Nam’s VinFast says it will open showrooms in California this year and begin selling its electric SUVs in the US in 2022. VinFast is the shorthand name for VinFast Trading and Production, a subsidiary of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup. Recently, it announced plans to open an automobile manufacturing facility in the US in the near future. But first, it expects to establish an R&D office in San Francisco to prepare for sales of its vehicles in the Golden State. According to a report by Vi...

WHEN YENVY PHAM’S parents opened their own restaurant in 1982, it was because they didn’t like working for other people. The couple, who had arrived in Seattle a year earlier from Vietnam, initially sold American sub sandwiches out of their little shop on the edge of Seattle’s International District. On weekends, Pham’s mother would make phở for their Vietnamese friends, who suggested they serve it at the sub shop. Within two months, it became a full-time phở spot called Phở Bắc. It w...

Vietnamese electric-vehicle startup VinFast plans to open a U.S. factory after setting up a 50-member San Francisco research office as it prepares for California automobile sales in 2022. VinFast, founded by billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, began delivering gasoline autos to Vietnamese consumers with BMW-licensed engines in 2019. Vuong, who is also chairman of parent company Vingroup JSC, said late that year he would back the company’s U.S. ambitions with $2 billion of his own fortune. The com...

A $1 billion class-action lawsuit has been filed against Texas wholesale electricity retailer Griddy Energy for allegedly charging exorbitant prices during last week's historic storm that left millions powerless in the freezing cold. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Chambers County resident Lisa Khoury in Harris County on Monday, who claimed her electricity bill soared to $9,340 the week of the storm. According to the lawsuit, her average monthly bills typically range from $200 to $250. ...

POLK COUNTY, Ga. — Many families are coming up with creative ways to make ends meet during this pandemic. But one man’s plan highlights a growing community issue: who is the true master of your land? Channel 2 anchor Sophia Choi started investigating and learned the answer may come from a judge. Choi spent weeks looking into this after hearing from Tim Leslie of Polk County. His plan was to buy land and live off it, after losing his job due to the pandemic. He bought the land, but the coun...

Best Buy said Thursday that it laid off 5,000 workers this month and is planning to close more stores this year as more consumers buy electronics online. The news comes at a time when big chains face growing competition from Amazon and other sites that sell items like TVs and laptops. Fry's Electronics said Wednesday that it would abruptly close all of its stores overnight, ending nearly four decades in business. Best Buy (BBY) expects 40% of its sales to come from online purchases this ye...

Fry's Electronics suddenly closed all of its stores overnight, ending a nearly four-decade run in business. The company, which had 31 stores across nine US states, said in a statement on its website that it "made the difficult decision to shut down its operations and close its business permanently" because of changing consumer shopping habits and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Based in San Jose, California, the privately held company was a family business. It was founded in 1985 by the thr...

Tanium co-founder and CEO Orion Hindawi may not be as well known as Jeff Bezos, Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, or other Seattle area billionaires. After all, it was just a few months ago that Hindawi and his family left the San Francisco Bay Area for Seattle’s Laurelhurst neighborhood, bringing his $9 billion cybersecurity company to the region along with him. So far, Hindawi seems to be fitting in pretty well, even though he admits it’s a strange time to get to know a new city. He’s not yet e...

We’re all tired of companies snooping on us through their apps and using our data against us. Facebook does it, even Google and a bunch of other apps.  To fight against this tracking Apple had announced last year that it will begin a new slew of privacy controls that will prevent apps from tracking its users. Reported first by AP, the feature was expected to roll out sometime in September last year, however, it got delayed due to multiple reasons, along with an outcry by Facebook, stating ...

When it comes to being fit and healthy, we're often reminded to aim to walk 10,000 steps per day. This can be a frustrating target to achieve, especially when we're busy with work and other commitments. Most of us know by now that 10,000 steps are recommended everywhere as a target to achieve – and yet where did this number actually come from? The 10,000 steps a day target seems to have come about from a trade name pedometer sold in 1965 by Yamasa Clock in Japan. The device was called “Man...