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Manasquan merchants say Main Street construction is hurting summer business
Road closures, detours and fewer parking spaces are frustrating Manasquan businesses and visitors during a critical stretch at the end of summer.
Why Good Small Business Always Run Out of Cash — and What Savvy Entrepreneurs Do Differently
Here's why cash flow is so brutal for independent merchants — and what they can actually do about it.
Merchants Alley Happy Hour Music Series returns with free fall entertainment lineup
The Merchants Alley Happy Hour Music Series is returning for fall, bringing live music to one of downtown Athens’ favorite gathering spots every Friday evening from September 4, and running […]
Las Vegas Businesses Ditch Credit Card Fees for Bitcoin Payments
Las Vegas Valley businesses, from restaurant chains to small juice bars, are embracing Bitcoin payments as mainstream adoption accelerates, with companies avoiding credit card processing fees averaging 2.5% to 3.5% while tapping into a growing customer base actively seeking crypto-friendly merchants. The shift follows Square’s November 2025 decision to enable ...
Small Business of the Month: Wolf Metals
Each month throughout the season, one local company will be recognized by the Blue Jackets and First Merchants Bank
Shopify suffers Cyber Monday outage, with checkout services down for some businesses
Some merchants that use Shopify's platform for online sales may experience an issue with checkouts, the company said.
Dems say SBA left businesses vulnerable to 'predatory' financing
Sens. Ed Markey and Ron Wyden argue that the Small Business Administration neglected to warn small firms of the risks of merchant cash advances and closed off a key "escape route" from the resulting debts.
‘We melt it down’: As gold hits record highs, business has never been so good for San Diego precious metals merchants
It is a boom time for bullion, as people dig through jewelry boxes and coin collections to turn metal into cash. Instead of reselling those items, many businesses will convert them into gold and si…
Business concerns stall plan to let Chicagoans flag crosswalk, bus and bike lane parking scofflaws
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) agreed to put a hold on his proposed citizen reporting ordinance in hopes of striking a compromise that could appease the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.
Viewpoint: Ignoring science on clean air will cost lives
Dr. Robert Merchant writes, Once president, he and his loyalists ignored the science, the health and economic benefits, the technological innovations, and dismantled key life-saving regulations to benefit his fossil fuel benefactors.
Downtown Idaho Falls businesses damaged in early morning vandalism spree
IDAHO FALLS — Business owners in downtown Idaho Falls are seeking answers after experiencing broken windows and other damage to their storefronts early Saturday morning. Shane Dial, president of the Downtown Merchants Association, says the incident happened around 5 a.m. Great Harvest Bakery Cafe, Medical Recovery Services and Idaho Mountain Trading were the businesses affected. […]
JPMorgan's Neukirchen on India Payments Business
Max Neukirchen, Global Co-Head of Payments at JPMorgan, discusses the business opportunities in India's merchant payments sector. He speaks with Menaka Doshi at the sidelines of the JPMorgan India Conference in Mumbai.
Small Business of the Month: Two Men and a Truck
Each month throughout the season, one local company will be recognized by the Blue Jackets and First Merchants Bank
The politics and possibilities of ‘AI could kill us all’
I found myself fielding a lot of questions from folks who don’t usually talk much about AI this week. They were mostly along the lines of “do you think AI is going to kill us all?” or “how worried should I be about this human extinction stuff?” Motivating this wave of existential anxiety was the highly dramatic resignation of now-former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon, who quit his job while publicly sharing his concerns about safety practices at the leading AI companies. More specifically, he declared that almost everyone at OpenAI and Anthropic, the leading AI labs, believes that there’s a decent chance the AI systems they’re producing could “kill us all” by the end of the decade, and the companies aren’t “acting responsibly.” Other AI safety researchers, including those still employed at Anthropic and OpenAI, all confirmed that yes, Coxon is correct, they’re all worried that their company’s products might prove fatal for the entire human race as well. Two more AI employees quit and joined the chorus. Now, the warning shot has been covered everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Fox News to WIRED to the Guardian. I understand why all this sounds scary, but my response to those who have asked, has generally been: No, you don’t need to worry that AI will kill go rogue and kill us all. But that does not mean we shouldn’t worry, period. Far from it. The companies building AI products are now among the wealthiest and most powerful entities in the world. And they very much are building enormous engines of mass surveillance, extraction, and automation. They can and have allowed their AI systems to carry out felony hacks of other companies, provided the government with autonomously generated kill lists, and sold enterprise technology to firms around the world that is explicitly intended to replace jobs. But “AI” has done these things not because they have all-powerful minds of their own but, ultimately, because people have programmed, calibrated, and directed them to. In other words, it’s not AI we need to worry the most about. It’s the people and corporations working to profit from and gain power by deploying it. The technology is sophisticated, sure, and, especially in cybersecurity contexts, potentially disruptive to plenty of existing systems. But if we want to stop this predatory, profiteering, and extractive form of AI—and it’s worth noting that at this point, most people do—we absolutely can. A quick note/plea: I can only do all of this with the support of readers like you, so if you find value in independent, critical tech journalism and analysis, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. I want to keep as much of this un-paywalled as absolutely possible, and I need your support to do so. Many thanks to all who continue to chip in, it’s very much appreciated. Onward. Subscribe First, some context: AI industry folks like Coxon have been discussing the prospect that AI will destroy humanity for years. Even before the beginning of the AI boom, many working in the industry, from the executive staff to the rank and file researchers, have obsessed over ‘x-risk’, or the possibility that AI will become sentient or semi-sentient and move one way or another to exterminate humanity. This is ostensibly why Elon Musk bankrolled OpenAI in the first place, and is the grounds for his lawsuit alleging OpenAI betrayed its charter by abandoning its nonprofit status to become a commercial enterprise. Many AI engineers and startup founders have calculated their own personal p(doom), or the probability that the tech product they are working on will initiate an actual humanity-extinguishing apocalypse. 10-25% p(doom)s are pretty common. (I wrote about a long weekend I spent among these folks at one of their top conferences here, to give you an idea of their ideas and belief systems.) Sam Altman himself drove the narrative of the imminent rise of a super-powerful AI, or artificial general intelligence, to prominence by declaring that the technology he was building posed an existential risk to humanity. This idea is in other words baked into the DNA of modern AI companies and into the products they engineer. It’s also why the industry is routinely accused, by myself and others, of “doom marketing,” ie, using such proclamations and framings to impart the sheer power of the technology behind your product onto investors, partners, consumers, and the state. Some ambient understanding of this tendency may have helped prevent the press from repeating the claim every time one of the x-risk folks made it over the years, including when they quit their jobs at AI companies while doing so. Yet Coxon’s AI x-risk alarm has broken containment, as they say, and has exposed the idea to the mainstream media once again. This has happened, I think, for a number of reasons. First, when AI CEOs were going around saying AI might kill everyone in 2023, their companies were well-capitalized, but not nearly to the extent they are today. They were more easily dismissed as eccentric geeks of the sort that Silicon Valley is supposed to produce. Now, not only do their products have much greater market saturation, but people are more aware of a) the often unethical ways the executives and companies comport themselves b) the other adverse impacts of AI that have already arrived, and c) the physical cost of building these systems, particularly when it comes to data centers. Finally, toss in the constant stream of headlines in 2026 about AI models going rogue or potentially upending the world’s infrastructure. [ ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) [ With the backlash to data centers, Flock and AI glasses, a mass opposition to big tech is underway. Silicon Valley is in denial. ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) Brian Merchant · Aug 27 [ Read full story ](https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers) As a result, general sentiment was already overwhelmingly skeptical of AI and its overlords, so the table was pretty well set for someone to come along and say ‘just a reminder, the companies that are building the product that promises to take your job and leave a data center in your neighborhood also think that it might exterminate the human race’ and get a strong reaction from the media and the public. The question is: Should we understand this stuff as hype, strategically fanned to feed already swelling valuations? Is it doom marketing? Genuine cause for alarm that the infrastructure that undergirds modern life is facing a novel threat vector? Or reason to be sincerely worried that AI companies are amassing too much power, and that their products are genuinely dangerous? The answer, I’m afraid, is “yes.” Let me try to untangle all of this a bit, because arguments over how to navigate this moment are extremely heated right now, as they are essentially arguments over how to approach the politics of AI at a moment where there may be a unique opening for action. Those sympathetic to AI alignment concerns and x risk arguments—which increasingly includes a faction on the left who want to shut down AI over safety concerns—argue that people who dismiss AI as all hype have their heads in the sand. Meanwhile, critics of the x-risk narrative—which I might note includes a cadre of investors and tech folks on the right, too—argue that it is hype and can be used to further inflate valuations or for pursuing regulatory capture. The challenge is that many feel that dismissing AI as just hype or purely marketing also diminishes the urgency of taking on the AI industry as the novel and threat to labor, civil society, and the public sphere it is; others that by accepting the industry’s own terms, we imbue it with undue power and enable it. But let’s be clear: Declarations that AI is so powerful it might end the world are a kind of marketing, and anyone who says otherwise is just as off base as those who say that’s all that it is. If you don’t think that these sub-trillion dollar companies have higher-ups who noticed that when their founders talked about super-powerful dangerous AI they got spikes in media interest and phone calls from investors, or that those founders didn’t notice that themselves, and lean into certain narratives to advantage their products, then I don’t know what to tell you. Not all marketing is a Pepsi ad campaign with a celebrity spokesperson. Yet confronting the AI industry should certainly be considered an urgent project. Do I share the x-riskers’ fear that out-of-control, super-intelligent AI agents might end the world? I do not. I’ve read a good deal of AI extinction literature over the last couple of years and I have not come across a credible, step-by-step documentation of how exactly AI might move from self-recursively improving AI to killing every single human on the planet. Most of what I’ve read seems predicated on a sort of reverse Ian Malcolmian logic: Eventually, it becomes smart enough and AI, uh, finds a way (to exterminate humanity). Are the AI companies also overstating and dramatizing what their products can do? Yes, pretty much all the time. They’re in a knife fight for market share and are trying to win customers and government contracts before their investors come knocking. And yet. They have concentrated enormous amounts of compute, have extensive data collection and surveillance capacities, have inserted themselves into the state in numerous capacities, including military kill chains, and they are being run by egomaniacal billionaires who are rushing to monopolize an entire new market. The way I think about their most recent frightening-seeming exploits is not as a “swarm of rogue AI agents building a new civilization” or whatever, but as corporations with a hitherto-unimaginable amount of compute at their disposal recklessly experimenting with automation programs, completely unafraid of any repercussions because we have been unwilling or unable to impose any on them. So I think we should welcome any newfound imperative to hold them accountable. I also think that ultimately, the AI critics, Pause AI folks, leftists, doomers, effective altruists, and, honestly, most of the public, want a lot of the same things: legitimate checks and limits on AI companies’ power, actual transparency into what the companies are doing, and for more of AI to be under public control. (Ultimately, a lot of what animates the x-risk fears are rooted in just that: a fear of losing control.) How we move towards all this, exactly, is the question of the day, and while there’s much to be argued over in terms of building a viable political platform to challenge the AI industry’s power, I do want to cast a vote against one particular approach. Not to pick on Chris here, as there are a lot of folks out there proposing stuff like this, and the policy ideas actually stem from AI safety groups. But not only would this be challenging to land politically (I can already hear the ‘China will beat us to AGI’ calls) and all but unworkable in practice, this approach is a) far too limiting, b) fails to address the current harms caused by AI and c) would likely only wind up serving Anthropic and OpenAI; it’s what regulatory capture looks like in action. Full model transparency is the floor for what should be on offer here. If these companies believe their products will kill us, the very least we deserve is to know how. It’s in the public interest. I would also argue we might get a lot of the way to stopping any currently envisioned robot apocalypse simply by forcing AI companies to assume liability, and to submit to the full brunt of the law. If Sam Altman were liable to be charged with a felony for approving the hack on Hugging Face1, if Google was forced to pay defamation fines each time it published a false and injurious AI Overviews, these companies might suddenly find cause to restrain their models’ output, and we might hear less about rogue AI. We would need to introduce new frameworks and available tools for tracking automated lawbreaking, to be sure, but I’d wager that little would frighten the AI companies more than actually being held accountable for what their products enable. To that end, Illinois has passed an AI liability law, which the industry fought tooth and nail, and Florida is considering one. The next steps would be towards moving AI under public control; again, it’s only reasonable, since everyone, not just AI insiders, should get a say over how a technology whose developers say might kill us is developed and deployed. Dismantling the whole industrial project as currently structured should be on the table, too, pending democratic input. But that’s for another post. For now, suffice to say that while I won’t be losing any sleep about an AI-enabled extinction event, Mr. Coxon and co. have given us an opportunity to underscore the urgency of the clear and present damage AI companies are doing, the extreme power they wield and the extent to which they hold themselves unaccountable, and the abundance of political capital there is out there for taking them on. Subscribe 1 Purely speculative! I do not know if he did or not.
Springfield business owners say MGM casino, falling short of expectations, has been no jackpot
The would-be love story between MGM Springfield and city officials had been tested for years, but perhaps officially ended when the city filed suit against the company for failing to live up to its host agreement. South End merchants have mixed views of the casino's impact.
Business News: Breaking N3W5 - Former AP CEO Bennahmias Announces First New Watch Brand
Ex-Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henri Bennahmias unveils 'N3W5' - the first watch brand under his 'The Honourable Merchants Group' luxury startup. It won't debut until late next year.
Raleigh parking plan could double on-street rates to $2.50/hr and impact small-businesses
Downtown Raleigh merchants and residents are sweating the possibility of parking rate hikes on the horizon.
Celebrate 40 years of Waynesville's Main Street milestones
For 40 years, merchants, property owners, volunteers, community leaders and residents have worked together to shape downtown Waynesville into the vibrant Main Street community it is today. Next month, the
Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City (YZBSTC) Shines at Oceanology International 2026
30 Deep-Sea "Hard-Tech" Innovations Debut on the Global StageLONDON, March 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On March 10 (local time), the Oceanology International 2026 (Oi2026), the world's premier ocean technology exhibition, officially opened in London, UK. Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City Administration, together with China Merchants Sanya Deep-Sea Technology City Development Co., Ltd., led a delegation of marine enterprises and institutions from YZBSTC to participate in this key glob
Small Business Technology News: Coming Soon: An Apple IPhone With Unrivaled Battery Life
PayPal says a growing number of merchants are accepting crypto and the best ERP software for 2026.
Man convicted in U.S. political assassination plot he tied to Iranian paramilitary
The jury needed little more than two hours to convict Asif Merchant, 47, of murder-for-hire and terrorism charges that carry the possibility of life in prison.
Sad? Relieved? Watch Hill business owners react to Swift's NYC wedding
Some merchants had looked forward to the business a Watch Hill wedding would bring, while others had been worried about the inevitable disruptions.
Downtown Portland businesses weigh safety and signs of progress after deadly shooting
Downtown Portland business owners react after police fatally shot a man on SW Broadway. Merchants describe chaos, shifting street behavior, and cautious optimism as crime data shows assaults up, homicides down.
Duluth businesses to close Friday; events planned to protest ICE
Some local merchants say they are willing to sacrifice a day of sales to stand up for immigrants and other community members who have been targeted in Minnesota.
Small businesses squeezed by Trump's tariffs turn to risky cash advances
Trump’s tariffs are squeezing some small businesses, and a Fed survey shows more firms applying for merchant cash advances despite steep costs.
Smelling success: Kalispell local sees fragrance business take-off
Born and raised in Kalispell, Bungay said Montana Fragrance Co. draws from the many iconic places around his home in Northwest Montana — an idea embraced by local merchants and their customers who have quickly bought up bottles from store shelves.
Downtown San Jose businesses welcome March Madness fans
Merchants in San Jose said the flood of revenue from college basketball fans in town for the NCAA tournament couldn’t have come at a better time.
How the WNBA became a political prop in the culture wars
Sports journalist Sabreena Merchant says culture war issues related to race and trans athletes threaten to overshadow exceptional play on the WNBA court.
2025 an active year on the Greenwich business scene as another iconic business said goodbye to the avenue
The closures of longtime businesses in the community has left a melancholy feeling among local merchants and residents.
MannyPay Global Launches U.S. Merchant Processing Division to Help Small Businesses Lower Payment Costs and Accelerate Growth
Backed by global icon Manny Pacquiao, the company introduces a merchant-first payments platform — spanning card processing, integrated commerce te...
NMI Expands Business Capital Lending Program for Small Merchants
Embedded payments infrastructure company NMI is expanding its NMI Business Capital service to help more merchants access financing, according to a
Chinese traders in Iran keep business afloat as war capsizes naval shipping
Extended disruption caused by conflict has prompted Chinese merchants to turn to railway and land transport routes to trade goods.
Tuscaloosa businesses did better than expected in spite of weekend hurricane threat
In the end, the storm became a non-factor for merchants on and around the Strip.
Downtown York merchants saw record sales on Small Business Saturday
Several merchants, including some in Royal Square, reported record-high sales for the 'shop small' event.
Merchants Bonding announces new leadership structure
West Des Moines-based Merchants Bonding Co. announced today that current President Larry Taylor will become the company’s chief executive officer, effective Jan. 1, 2027. The CEO role is newly created for the organization. Taylor will continue to serve as chairman of the company’s board of directors. Taylor has selected Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk…
Car crashes into business on Athens Square
City officials say Athens Police were immediately contacted, and first responders, nearby merchants, and other good Samaritans quickly stepped in to help.
Raleigh mayor talks city's response to business owner's transgender comment
Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell talks about pointed comments toward transgender people allegedly made by Jennifer Martin, the executive director of the Greater Raleigh Merchants' Association.
Merchants of Doubt and the attacks on Extreme Event Attribution science
Last week, I attended a meeting at Columbia University on attribution science and climate law, hosted by the Sabin Center. It was a fantastic event, bringing together scientists and legal experts working at the intersection of extreme event attribution and climate law. Subscribe For those unfamiliar with it, extreme event attribution attempts to quantify the contribution of climate change to an extreme event. For example, several groups analyzed the impact of climate change on Hurricane Harvey’s enormous rainfall totals over Houston, Texas and they found that climate change increased rainfall by 15 to 38%. One thing that came up again and again was how terrified fossil-fuel interests are of extreme event attribution science. They are acutely aware that this research could land them in court. And losing those cases would leave them legally liable for billions of dollars in climate damages. Because the legal stakes are so high, the blowback has turned ugly. I spoke with several scientists at the meeting who are facing ongoing harassment over their work. This blowback is a coordinated campaign to make the entire field look suspect. The goal is to create the impression that attribution science is too uncertain, too political, or too conflicted to be useful in court or in public policy. The strategy is not based on actual science or evidence of misconduct, but on the generation of doubt. The new Merchants of Doubt We’ve seen this before. In fact, not that long ago: We only have to go back a year to the Department of Energy (DOE) Climate Working Group (CWG) report to see an example of using doubt as the tool to push back against well-established science. This strategy is laid out in an email from a member of the CWG, Dr. Roy Spencer, that was released during litigation over the Climate Working Group process. The key quote is: About all I can hope is that what we write will provide sufficient “reasonable scientific doubt” regarding the science claims in the 2009 TSD [technical support document], based upon almost 2 decades of new science, to call into question the original reasoning for the EPA Administrator’s decision that CO2 presents a threat to human health and welfare. This statement is strong evidence that at least some members of the committee were working to support a particular policy outcome: revoking the Endangerment Finding. The email also explains how they planned to do it: by attempting to generate “reasonable doubt”. This is going to be hard, Spencer implies. Despite falsely claiming that “2 decades of new science” weakens the case, Spencer explicitly acknowledges that the actual peer-reviewed science of climate change overwhelmingly rejects his position: But if the science argument is decided upon by a vote, or by the number of published citations, we lose the science argument. We can go back even further: This CWG email shares unmistakable DNA with the infamous 1969 tobacco memo that declared: “Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.” The tobacco memo also acknowledges the limit of this strategy: Like the CWG, they knew the science was not on their side. Share The new new Merchants of Doubt The people attacking the IPCC chapter on extreme event attribution are the newest iteration of the Merchants of Doubt. Their goal, like all Merchants before them, is to introduce doubt into the process. Because the report is not even out yet, they cannot attack its conclusions. So they are attacking the authors instead. Here is a press release from the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee: In the letter, the Chairmen express concerns about potential conflicts of interest involving members of the Attribution Committee, stating that “publicly available information suggests a troubling pattern” in which committee members are affiliated with nonprofits that support climate accountability lawsuits, “raising the appearance of impropriety and member bias.” To be clear, this is just innuendo. There is no actual evidence of bias. And given the robust process that these reports go through, including multiple lines of peer review, it seems very unlikely that significant bias can survive into the report. When the report comes out, critics will have the opportunity to make legitimate criticisms of the report — if any exist. If none do, however, they’ll still make criticisms, but they’ll be bogus, simply designed to generate doubt. We’ll see. A note to the press: Fix your frame To any journalists reading this: The public debate over extreme event attribution science is not going away. The science is simply too dangerous to fossil-fuel interests for them to stop fighting it. You very well might be assigned to write an article about this area of research in the future. When you do, do not automatically adopt the framing that climate misinformers want you to use. They want you to frame the story around questions like: Are climate scientists trying to put their thumb on the scale to achieve a predetermined, politically motivated result? Are climate scientists improperly letting their politics invade the science of the IPCC? That frame is a trap. Instead, you need to view this through the historical lens of the Merchants of Doubt. How does the ecosystem of doubt operate? Who funds it? What methods do they use to misrepresent science and slime researchers? What scientific results are they trying to keep people from understanding are legitimate? Ultimately, you instead need to focus your article on the generation of doubt as a way to maintain the fossil fuel industry’s social and legal license to keep burning oil, gas, and coal. If you treat the misinformers’ frame as a legitimate, good-faith scientific critique, you are helping them produce doubt. Don’t do it. Don’t be a Merchant of Doubt. Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe other stuff The Staying Curious Substack has an interesting post about the different flavors of climate sensitivity. This is crucial information if you want to understand how scientists think about how much warming the Earth will experience. I’d be grateful if you could hit the like button ❤️ below! It helps more people discover these ideas and lets me know what’s connecting with readers.
How the WNBA became a political prop in the culture wars
Despite record viewership and attendance, and amazing talent across the league, the WNBA has been caught up in the national conversation about the culture wars. Sportswriter Sabreena Merchant says, “everything in the WNBA seems to take on a political lens far beyond what is actually happening on the court.” Merchant spoke with Fresh Air guest interviewer Sam Fragoso (host of Talk Easy) about the expansion of the WNBA, the race and gender politics consuming the narrative, and the departure of commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Merchant writes for The Athletic, from the New York Times.Also, film critic Justin Chang reviews Practical Magic 2. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter Follow us on Instagram Subscribe to our YouTube channel Check out the Fresh Air Archives
Small Business of the Month: Ditch Witch Mid-States
Each month throughout the season, one local company will be recognized by the Blue Jackets and First Merchants Bank
Amazon tests Prime shipping on the web without an Amazon login
Amazon tests a new program allowing Prime shipping on external sites without an Amazon login, extending its logistics reach with other merchants.
Merchant Investment Takes Stake in Family Office Firm
Merchant Investment Management acquires a minority stake in Emerge Business Management to offer family office services to its RIA network
Canada's Shopify forecasts revenue above estimates, shares surge
Canada's Shopify projected current-quarter revenue growth above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, signaling the company's AI efforts were drawing more merchants to its suite of e-commerce services, sending its U.S.-listed shares up 26% premarket.
Turned down MIT for a little-known college. Not everyone understood.
Hannah Mitchell turned down MIT for a the Merchant Marine Academy. Three months in, she says it was the right decision.
Gloucester business to close after more than 100 years
Workers are told they will lose their jobs at a longstanding timber merchant.
Business People Northwest Arkansas
Kevin Wilhelm has joined First Community Bank as its new vice president, merchant services manager. Based in the bank's Northwest Arkansas market, Wilhelm will support customers and team members across the bank's entire footprint.
Downtown Chico business owner voices concerns over street closures for events
A DOWNTOWN CHICO MERCHANT IS EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER THE IMPACT OF STREET CLOSURES FOR EVENTS -- ON THEIR BUSINESS. ACTION NEWS NOW REPORTER BELLA BARBOSA REPORTS FROM DOWNTOWN CHICO { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "VideoObject", "name": "Downtown Road Closure Dilemma", "description": "A DOWNTOWN CHICO MERCHANT IS EXPRESSING CONCERN OVER THE IMPACT OF STREET CLOSURES FOR EVENTS -- ON THEIR BUSINESS. ACTION NEWS NOW REPORTER BELLA BARBOSA REPORTS FROM DOWNTOWN CHICO", "thumbnailUrl": "https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/actionnewsnow.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/47/c47e26d6-03c3-5f35-bf49-37925ab603d7/69bdedc4eb57d.image.jpg", "uploadDate": "2026-03-20T17:45:00-07:00", "contentUrl": "https://cdn.field59.com/KHSL/1774053903-6e1ef36dd09fbebf020833aee86b60da3b3cca3f_fl9-720p.mp4" } CHICO, Calif. - A downtown Chico business owner is voicing concerns about the impact of street closures for events on local shops. Leann Powell, owner of The Peddler’s Closet, expressed concern about events closing down streets downtown and bringing in food trucks and other shops’ products that directly compete with the brick-and-mortar stores in downtown Chico.Powell said an upcoming event held on a Saturday has brought up concerns for her and other business owners downtown, due to it being a busy day for businesses. "We're already struggling, and then to bring in more businesses on top of our businesses and shut our streets down is absolutely devastating," said Powell.Powell noted a decline in business during events like the Thursday Night Market, where street closures allow outside vendors to set up shop. She shared that while organizers for these types of events often offer booths to local businesses, it does not alleviate the burden."I don't really feel like that's a solution because you're bringing in other businesses, you're shutting the streets down. Yes, we can go down and set up a space, but then you've gotta pay somebody to run that space, plus run your own business for the day, and it's really not, it's really not helpful for us," said Powell.Applying for a street closure permit in Chico involves approval from the Public Works Department, the Chief of Police, and the Fire Chief. Permits can be denied only under a handful of circumstances, such as interference with first responders, previously scheduled construction, or existing permits for the same space.Mayor Kasey Reynolds addressed the issue, saying the city council has tasked staff with reviewing the municipal code for street closure permits with the goal of finding ways to minimize negative impacts on local businesses during events.Reynolds mentioned that any recommended changes might require further direction from the city council, depending on the extent of any changes recommended. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1514992'); });
SumUp Launches Online Booking to Help U.S. Small Businesses Fill Their Calendar and Protect Revenue
The global fintech company introduces an all-in-one online scheduling and payments tool that’s free for merchants — giving service-based small bus...
Large Businesses Driving Crypto Payments Adoption, PayPal Survey Finds
About 4 in 10 U.S. merchants (40%) now accept crypto at checkout, PayPal and the National Cryptocurrency Association said, citing a Harris Poll survey. 50% ...
Powering Business Growth: Regions Bank Selects Worldpay to Transform Business Payments
Regions Bank joins Worldpay, a Global Payments company, as one of its largest branch-banking collaborators to deliver cutting-edge payments technology for businesses of all sizes. Regions Bank on Wednesday announced a major collaboration with payments technology company Worldpay® , a Global Payments company. This new collaboration is designed to enhance how Regions’ business clients, ranging from small businesses to major enterprises, accept payments and manage cash flow operations. Regions Bank is announcing a major collaboration with payments technology company Worldpay®, a Global Payments company, to enhance how Regions’ business clients, ranging from small businesses to major enterprises, accept payments and manage cash flow operations. Through Regions Merchant Services , the bank delivers intuitive, convenient financial services to a wide range of companies that sell goods or services in-store, online or through a mobile or tablet device. How does the new Regions-Worldpay
Man accused of plotting Trump assassination claims Iran forced him to
A Pakistani businessman accused of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump testified that he was coerced by Iran and feared for his family's safety.
What a great Iowa humanitarian, Bill Foege, taught me
The Decorah-born scientist helped eradicate smallpox in India and Somalia, and that was just the start of his career, writes James Merchant.
PixlPay Announces Partnership with Factor4 to Expand Gift Card Solutions for Businesses
PixlPay, an Arkansas-based payment processing and point of sale solutions provider, has announced a new partnership with Factor4 to bring advanced gift card and loyalty technology to merchants across the United States.
Downtown Gloversville businesses to be highlighted on Small Business Saturday
Organizations are asking Gloversville businesses to participate in an upcoming campaign to highlight local merchants.
Fast business funding: Big fees, few protections for merchant cash advances
A Colorado man says he lost $4,000 after applying for online business funding tied to Goldman Financial. Denver7 Investigates examines merchant cash advances, complaints, fees and industry oversight.
How the WNBA became a political prop in the culture wars
Sports journalist Sabreena Merchant says culture war issues related to race and trans athletes threaten to overshadow exceptional play on the WNBA court.
Onboarding support helps merchants adopt digital payment methods
A research team led by Shreya Kankanhalli of the SC Johnson College found that supporting merchants during and after installation of digital payment devices resulted in significantly greater uptake of the technology.
Ecommerce Views Launches as the Go-To Resource for Practical, Research-Backed Ecommerce Intelligence
The new digital publication fills the gap between surface-level news and real-world understanding for merchants, operators, and builders of e-co...
Business Ins and Outs | The Nest, Spice & Tea Merchants, Rita's Italian Ice and coffee shops open
Hub Bootery announces new location in Crown Point.
Klarna CEO backs Trump's 10% credit card cap
Even people who don't use credit cards pay more for everyday goods because merchants raise prices to cover card fees, said Klarna's CEO.
Recovery grants available for East Side merchants who lost business after Brown shooting
Recovery grants will soon become available to help Providence East Side businesses impacted during the roughly five-day manhunt for the gunman responsible for killing two students and injuring nine others at Brown University in December.
Business People Northwest Arkansas
Kevin Wilhelm has joined First Community Bank as its new vice president, merchant services manager. Based in the bank's Northwest Arkansas market, Wilhelm will support customers and team members across the bank's entire footprint.
More older vessels on seas raise underwriting risks
Declining ship demolition rates have pushed the average age of merchant ships on their final voyages to 22 years, increasing pressure on underwriters, according to Ilias P. Tsakiris…
From Greenpoint merchants to Chinatown lights: Where NYC’s $8.4M small-business grants are going
The grants announced Monday by Mamdani and the Department of Small Business Services will also pay for street cleaning, lighting, public art, wayfinding,
Amazon Wants to Run Merchants’ Businesses Beyond Amazon
Amazon spent decades trying to make itself the place where merchants sell. Its next act may be considerably more ambitious: becoming the place where
How Hemp-THC businesses are bracing for a near total ban
Follow us to Tennessee where hemp farmers are already pivoting in the face of a state ban and soon, a looming federal ban on basically all THC-derived hemp products. Will Congress step in to save this $28 billion industry? Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.Your Next Listen — How would-be weed merchants hit a ‘grass ceiling’ Connect with The Indicator — Sign up for The Indicator’s weekly newsletter! — Buy the Planet Money book — Find our socials, YouTube and more! — For sponsor-free episodes, subscribe to NPR+ Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
Small Business of the Month: Bridgeway Academy and Therapy Center
Each month throughout the season, one local company will be recognized by the Blue Jackets and First Merchants Bank
China's $112 billion cargo gap shows record U.S. tariff evasion
Business owners, shipping merchants, trade attorneys and former customs officials are sounding the alarm over a surge in apparent tariff fraud.
SF's Sunset District business owners meet with PG&E after weeks of blackouts
The three businesses visited during the merchant walk were impacted by the blackout in San Francisco on December 20, and are making claims beyond the PG&E automatic credits.
‘Causing havoc’ or high-tech convenience? Sports betting kiosks installed at 89 retail stores in Delaware
Merchants, lottery boss tout self-serve system, but gambling addiction counselors worry about underage users, more people going deep into debt.
AsiaPay Launches InsertPass to Help Businesses Create and Deliver Digital Passes and Vouchers with Ease
AsiaPay has launched InsertPass, a digital pass solution that enables merchants to create, deliver, and manage digital passes and vouchers for Apple Wallet and Google Wallet customers.
Forward Theater's ‘Steady She Goes’ sets sail in the Playhouse
Madison company Forward Theater Co. presents this world premiere about the first woman to captain an American merchant vessel through Sept. 27.
Tenet Adds First U.S. Exclusive Commercial Lender to Business Hub and Welcomes New West Coast Business Development Manager
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 1, 2026) - Tenet Fintech Group Inc. (CSE: PKK) (OTCID: PKKFF) (FSE: P0T) ("Tenet" or the "Company"), an innovative analytics service provider, owner and operator of the Cubeler Business Hub, today announced that New York based commercial lender Premium Merchant Funding ("PMF") has signed on to be the first commercial lender on the Business Hub exclusively dedicated to lending and extending credit to U.S. based small and medium-sized enterprises.While..
China Proposes Expanding E-Commerce Law Scope, Platform Rules
China released draft amendments to its E-Commerce Law that would expand coverage beyond platforms and merchants, and revise rules governing the digital economy.
Google's AI try-on app Doppl adds a shoppable discovery feed
The tech giant says the idea behind the new feed is to display recommendations so users can discover and virtually try on items. Nearly everything in the feed is shoppable, with direct links to merchants.