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When a man who is widely disliked or even hated wins a political election by a crushing majority, there are two possibilities: Either the electorate is sufficiently mature to understand that an election is not a beauty contest, or the other candidate is even more widely disliked and hated. The latter was certainly the case in the second round of the French election, held on Sunday, in which Emmanuel Macron was re-elected president of France. At best, this brought relief rather than joy. Macron’s somewhat subdued victory speech suggested that he was aware of this himself.
from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
Ford Motor Co. reported Wednesday that it lost $3.1 billion in the first quarter, weighed down by its investment in an electric-vehicle startup, and its revenue slid as a shortage of chips limited the supply of pickups and SUVs in North America. Company executives pointed away from the loss and toward results that excluded the lower value of its stake in Rivian. Ford said that it made $2.3 billion in pretax profit and is still on track to hit its full-year target for that measurement. Ford said it sold 966,000 vehicles in the first quarter, down 9% from a year earlier.
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost $1.2 billion in the first quarter as it took large write-downs and lost money in both its civilian-airplane and defense businesses. The loss was bigger than Wall Street had forecast, and the company’s quarterly revenue also fell short of expectations. Boeing burned through $3.2 billion in cash. Shares of Chicago-based Boeing Co. fell as much as 12.6% after the opening bell Wednesday – to a 52-week low – and were down 7% in midday trading.
A federal judge has rejected Elon Musk’s bid to throw out a securities fraud settlement over tweets claiming that Musk had the funding to take Tesla private in 2018. Judge Lewis Liman on Wednesday also denied a motion to nullify a subpoena of Musk seeking information about possible violations of his settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk had asked the Manhattan federal court to scrap the settlement, which required that his tweets be approved by a Tesla attorney before being published. The SEC is investigating whether the Tesla CEO violated the settlement with tweets last November asking Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. Limon’s ruling said that Musk made the tweets without getting pre-approval.
Snake River dam opponents claim that hydropower dams are no longer economic, and they can be easily replaced by wind or solar power plus batteries with little or no cost impact to customers. The current debate over the restart of the Intalco Works aluminum smelter in Whatcom County exposes the fallacy of those arguments. The smelter’s owners recently secured $10 million in taxpayer support that would allow them to manufacture “green” aluminum. It’s green because the plant wants to buy its electricity from the Bonneville Power Administration, which provides nearly 100% carbon-free electricity to its customers, 85% of which comes from hydropower and another 11% from nuclear.
Russia cut off natural gas to NATO members Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday and threatened to do the same to other countries, dramatically escalating its standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine. European leaders decried the move as “blackmail.” A day after the U.S. and other Western allies vowed to speed more and heavier weapons to Ukraine, the Kremlin used its most essential export as leverage against two of Kyiv’s staunch backers. Gas prices in Europe shot up on the news. The tactic could eventually force targeted nations to resort to gas rationing and could deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.
Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington plans to relocate the House of Charity shelter to a new location several miles outside downtown Spokane. Mayor Nadine Woodward announced the endeavor Wednesday during her State of the City address. Dubbed “House of Charity 2.0,” the project would move House of Charity to a larger, 40,000-to-50,000-square-foot site. The move will allow Catholic Charities to grow House of Charity from an approximately 135-bed shelter with services for men and women to one potentially capable of serving 250 to 300 individuals.
While members of the Spokane City Council have offered recommendations to Mayor Nadine Woodward’s administration for what new requests for proposals should include, Woodward said the council’s input won’t impact her administration’s priorities for a homeless shelter on East Trent Avenue. Woodward previously identified a vacant warehouse at 4320 E. Trent Ave. as the ideal site for an approximately 33,000-square-foot facility with a daily usage of 250 beds plus surge capacity. The City Council, however, is recommending shelter space with less than half that capacity. The mayor, still gunning for that 250-bed facility with onsite wraparound services, said Tuesday a potential lease is still in the works with the property’s owner, local developer Larry Stone.
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