NEWS THAT MATTER

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Americans stuck at home started to take a hard look at their surroundings, leading to a home improvement boom. Skyrocketing demand and historically high lumber prices bear excellent fortune for a couple of publicly traded companies that make a rather humble-sounding product – fake wood decks.   Two of the biggest names in this space are Trex and AZEK. Together they control 75 percent of the composite decking market, about 20 percent of the entire $8 billion decking market. A third brand, Fiberon, has about 10 percent share.

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Over the past 100 years, the technology inside airplanes has become more and more advanced from jumbo jets to smaller Cessnas.   Some see the next step to full automation as removing the pilot completely. Reliable Robotics and Xwing are two Bay Area start-ups working on doing just that. Rather than build new aircraft, both companies have retrofitted Cessna Grand Caravans. The planes can fly autonomously with a remote operator who monitors the flight and can take control if needed. Both companies are working with the FAA on getting approval.

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Porsche, a once independent firm devoted entirely to sports cars, has become a brand within the massive Volkswagen Group, and it is viewed as a kind of jewel in that portfolio. Volkswagen has other luxury brands that range from high-end to exotic such as Lamborghini, Bugatti, and Bentley. Porsche is responsible for about 25 percent of VW’s passenger car profits. As Porsche built its legacy around gasoline-burning engines, how can it continue to succeed and set sport car standards in the electric age?

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Summer 2021 is shaping up to be one of the hottest in history, as the effects of climate change are becoming ever clearer. Naturally, that’s led to an increase in global demand for air conditioning, which itself is a major contributor to global warming. It’s a vicious cycle, but there are a number of companies working to make heating and cooling more energy efficient, and get buildings off of fossil fuels for good.

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Arizona has rapidly become an epicenter for electric vehicle and self-driving tech, and it’s now the site of three big new semiconductor factories as the U.S. struggles to increase production during the global chip shortage.  The Arizona Commerce Authority says it helped 634 companies relocate or expand in Arizona between 2015 and 2020. Big names include Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and electric vehicle companies Lucid Motors, ElectraMeccanica, Nikola and Atlis Motor Vehicles.  In 2020, Phoenix attracted more residents than any other U.S. city for the fourth year in a row, as highly skilled remote workers flocked to the lower cost of living and wide open spaces of the Grand Canyon State.

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College in the United States is expensive. The cost of higher education just keeps going up. Tuition costs at both public and private universities have doubled since the late 80s, while accounting for inflation.  "I think that it's so ingrained in your head that you have to go to college, that college is the next step after graduation," said Jarret Freeman, a college graduate with roughly $50,000 in student debt. "I think in hindsight, I see that college is not for everyone."  But a college education is becoming more and more necessary to succeed in today's economy. Georgetown University estimates that by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require more than a high school degree.

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Analysts estimate that the size of the EV battery industry will grow to around $70 billion by 2025, and there’s a number of innovative battery start-ups trying to grab a piece of the pie. One of these companies, Cuberg, is making lithium-metal batteries, which it says will be twice as energy dense as standard lithium-ion, and could therefore help electric vehicles become cheaper and more efficient. Because Cuberg’s tech is largely compatible with existing lithium-ion manufacturing processes, it has the potential to scale quickly. And if it does, we could see lithium metal batteries powering small planes and electric vehicles within the decade.

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Every year, about a third of Americans spend at least some time on a boat. In the landscape of recreational power sports, which includes boats, some categories have seen their fair share of struggles in recent years. But boat industry revenues have been mostly growing. Boat sales have seen a boost during Covid, but some analysts think the growth is poised to continue.

China has the world’s fastest and largest high-speed rail network — more than 19,000 miles, the vast majority of which was built in the past decade.  Japan’s bullet trains can reach nearly 200 miles per hour and date to the 1960s. They have moved more than 9 billion people without a single passenger causality. casualty   France began service of the high-speed TGV train in 1981 and the rest of Europe quickly followed.  But the U.S. has no true high-speed trains, aside from sections of Amtrak’s Acela line in the Northeast Corridor. The Acela can reach 150 mph for only 34 miles of its 457-mile span. Its average speed between New York and Boston is about 65 mph.

In 2019, the North American waste management market reached $208 billion. Thanks to advancements in modern chemistry and support from municipal governments, landfills have seen astonishing financial success in recent years. Private companies like Waste Management and Republic Services now own a majority of landfills across the U.S., their stocks outperforming the market every year since 2014. So how exactly are landfills turning a profit out of garbage and just how much money can be made? Watch the video to find out.  A rising industry  America has long remained one of the most wasteful countries in the world, generating 239 million metric tons of garbage every year, about 1,600 to 1,700 pounds per person. While some view it as a threat to our environment and society, the solid waste management industry sees an opportunity.

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