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Canadian Prime Minister Carney says trade war is hurting Americans, noting consumer confidence

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday U.S. ‘s trade war is hurting Americans, noting that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low.

Carney also said the kinship that exists between U.S. and is under more strain than at any point in the two countries storied histories.

“His is hurting American consumers and workers and it will hurt more. I see that American consumer confidence is at a multi-year low,” Carney said while campaigning in Windsor, Ontario ahead of Canada’s April 28 election.

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its U.S consumer confidence index fell 7.2 points in March to 92.9, the fourth straight monthly decline and its lowest reading since January of 2021. Trump has plunged the U.S. into a global war — all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty.

Trump put 25% tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products — as well as all of America’s trading partners — on April 2.

“He wants to break us so America can own us,” Carney said. “And it will never ever happen because we just don’t look out for ourselves we look out for each other.”

Carney, former two-time central banker, made the comments while campaigning near the Ambassador Bridge, which is considered the busiest U.S.-Canadian border crossing, carrying 25% of all trade between the two countries. It plays an especially important role in auto .

Carney said the bridge carries 140 billion Canadian dollars ($98 billion) in goods every year and CA$400 million ($281 million) per day.

“Now those numbers and the jobs and the paychecks that depend on that are in question,” Carney said. “The relationship between Canada and the United States has changed. We did not change it.”

Carney announced Wednesday a CA$2 billion ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump’s tariffs.

The Liberal Party leader noted the bridge is especially important to Canada’s auto sector, the country’s second largest export. He said Canada’s auto sector employs 125,000 jobs directly and almost another 500,000 jobs in related industries, many of them union jobs.

“Canada will be there for auto workers,” Carney said.

Earlier this month, Trump granted a one-month exemption on his stiff new tariffs on from Mexico and Canada for U.S. automakers, as worries persist the newly launched trade war could crush domestic manufacturing.

In the auto sector, parts can go back and forth across the Canada-U.S. border several times before being fully assembled in Ontario or Michigan.

Trump has declared a trade war on his northern neighbor and continues to call for Canada to become the 51st state, a position that has infuriated Canadians. The American has threatened economic coercion in his annexation threats and suggested the border is a fictional line.

The new prime minister, sworn in March 14, still hasn’t had a phone call with Trump. It is unusual for a U.S. president and Canadian prime minister to go so long without talking after a new leader takes office.

US could run short of money to pay its bills by August without debt limit deal, CBO says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is on track to hit its statutory — the so-called X-date when the country runs short of money to pay its bills— as early as August without a between lawmakers and the White House, according to a Congressional Budget Office report Wednesday.

By that time, the government would no longer have enough of a financial cushion to pay all its bills after exhausting its “extraordinary measures” the accounting maneuvers used to stretch existing funds.

Washington would risk defaulting on its debt unless and Republican agree to lift the borrowing limit or abolish the debt ceiling concept altogether.

The debt limit was reinstated Jan. 2, following its suspension by Congress in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

“The Treasury has already reached the current debt limit of $36.1 trillion, so it has no room to borrow under its standard operating procedures,” according to the CBO report.

An analysis released on Monday by the Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that the U.S. could run out of cash by mid-July if Congress did not raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit.

Trump had previously demanded that a provision raising or suspending the debt limit — something that his own party routinely resists — be included in legislation to avert the last potential government shutdown. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” Trump said in a statement in December. That deal did not address the debt limit.

After the debt limit was reinstated, in one of her last acts as Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen said Treasury would institute “extraordinary measures ” intended to prevent the U.S. from reaching the debt ceiling.

Since then, the Treasury Department has stopped paying into certain accounts, including a slew of federal worker pension and disability funds, to make up for the shortfall in money. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has continued to notify Congress about the use of extraordinary measures in an effort to prevent a breach of the debt ceiling.

The CBO estimates that if the debt limit remains unchanged, then “the government’s ability to borrow using extraordinary measures will probably be exhausted in August or September 2025. The projected exhaustion date is uncertain because the timing and amount of revenue collections and outlays over the intervening months could differ from CBO’s projections.”

Founders of Black-owned brands adapt their hopes and business plans for a post-DEI era

NEW YORK (AP) — The co-founders of a company that makes lip products for darker skin tones no longer hope to get their line into Target. A brother and sister who make jigsaw puzzles celebrating subjects wonder if they need to offer “neutral” images like landscapes to keep growing.

Pound Cake and Puzzles of Color are among the small businesses whose owners are rethinking their plans as major U.S. companies weaken their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The initiatives mostly date from the end  Donald Trump’s first term and entered a new era with the dawn of his second one.

Some Black-owned brands suspect big chains will drop partnerships they pursued after the police killing of a Black man in 2020 reignited mass protests against racial injustice. In today’s anti- climate, other entrepreneurs worry about personal repercussions or feel pressure to cancel contracts with retreating retailers.

“It becomes a question of, are the big box stores going to be there? Do we even make any attempt to talk to these people?” Ericka Chambers, one of the siblings behind Puzzles of Color, said. “We are really having to evaluate our strategy in how we expand and how we want to get in front of new customers.”

A fighting chance for Black-owned brands

Chambers and her brother, William Jones, started turning the work of artists of color into frameable puzzles the same year a video captured a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. Amid the Black Lives Matter protests over Floyd’s death, a fashion designer challenged large retailers to devote 15% of their shelf space and purchasing power to Black businesses.

The Fifteen Percent Pledge helped bring Puzzles of Color’s creations to Macy’s and Nordstrom’s websites in 2022. Last year, they made it into select Barnes & Noble stores. Chambers said she’s confident in the companies’ commitments but recalled a backlash after news outlets covered the brand, which is based in Texas.

“It does make us think about how we envision ourselves as far as the safety of not wanting to be attacked, because some people are very vocal about being anti-DEI,” Chambers said.

Vibrant depictions of Black women account for many of her and Jones’ puzzles. The pair figured they needed to provide more abstract designs for certain Barnes & Noble locations to give Puzzles of Color “a little bit of a fighting chance.”

Discontent over corporate diversity

The first prominent names in U.S. retail to end or retool their diversity programs surfaced last summer amid threats of challenges and negative publicity from DEI critics, who argue that setting hiring, promotion and supplier diversity goals for underrepresented groups constitutes reverse discrimination.

After Trump won a second term in November, Walmart joined the corporate pullback. Target’s suspension of its comparable DEI targets in January stung Black and LGBTQ+ customers harder, largely because they regarded the Minneapolis-based company as more of a natural ally.

The company said it would continue working with a diverse range of businesses. Philadelphia-based Pound Cake’s co-founders, Camille Belle and Johnny Velazquez, said they don’t think they would agree at this point if the retailer offered to stock their lipsticks and lip oils.

“Target would have been a great boost to our business’s growth,” Velazquez said. “We’ll just find it elsewhere.”

To boycott or not?

Target’s stance has created a dilemma for brand founders with existing distribution deals. One is Play Pits, a natural deodorant for children that Maryland resident Chantel Powell launched in 2021. The product is found in about 360 Target stores.

The retailer’s DEI program “allowed us to employ amazing people, give back to our community, and exhibit Black excellence on and off the shelves,” Powell wrote on LinkedIn as civil rights leaders talked about boycotting Target.

She and some other product creators highlighted the impact boycotts might have on their businesses. They urged upset customers to intentionally limit their purchases to items from Black-owned enterprises. Some activists understood; others pushed the brands to join the protest by cutting ties with Target.

“The conversation around Black brands, that they should pull out of the retailers that they’re in, is unrealistic,” Powell said this month as a 40-day, church-organized Target boycott was underway. “We signed up to be in business. I understand why people are having that conversation of boycotts. As a Black founder, I also understand the side of how it can be detrimental.”

Navigating the post-DEI landscape

The owner of a Black-owned sexual wellness business with its own line of condoms has a slightly different take. Target started carrying B Condoms in 2020, and founder Jason Panda said the company told him late last year that it didn’t intend to keep the prophylactics in the 304 stores that stocked them.

Panda says he isn’t worried. The product is available through Amazon and in more than 7,000 CVS stores, he said. What’s more, contracts with non-profit organizations and local governments that distribute condoms for free are the cornerstone of the business he established in 2011, Panda said.

“My money has never really come from mainstream,” he said. “We’re going to be protected as long as I can maintain my relationship with my community.”

Brianna Arps, who founded the fragrance brand Moodeaux in 2021, notices fewer grants available to Black brand creators these days. She used to apply for 10 to 15 every week or two; the number is down to five to seven, Arps said.

“A lot of the organizations that had been really vocal about supporting (Black businesses) have either quietly or outwardly pulled back,” she said.

Moodeaux was the first Black-owned perfume brand to get its perfumes into Urban Outfitters and Credo Beauty, which specializes in natural vegan products. In the current environment, Arps is looking to expand her brand’s presence independent shops and to support other Black fragrance lovers.

“The resiliency of brands like ours and founders like myself will still exist,” she said.

Accentuating the positive

Aurora James, the founder of the Fifteen Percent Pledge, said nearly 30 major companies that joined the initiative remain committed to it, including Bloomingdale’s, beauty retailer Sephora, J. Crew and Gap.

Ulta Beauty, another pledge signatory, and Credo Beauty carry Pound Cake products. Velazquez and Belle want to use social media to direct their followers to support retailers like Ulta and to bolster their online sales.

“It’s going to be fostering the community that we have and growing that,” Velazquez said.

While making a strategic decision “to appeal to a broader audience” when selecting puzzles for Barnes & Noble, Chambers said she plans to introduce Black faces and experiences to the chain’s bookstores over time, in boxes of 500, 750 and 1,000 pieces.

In the meantime, Puzzles of Color expanded its “Pride” collection as a response to the DEI backlash. The subjects include Harriet Tubman, a mother and daughter tending a garden, and a little girl in a beauty supply store gazing up at hair accessories.

“Do we lean in all the way?” Chambers asks herself. “Part of why we started this was because we didn’t see enough Black people in puzzles.”

3D printed and factory-built homes could help tackle housing crisis

DENVER (AP) — As Americans struggle under backbreaking rental prices, builders are turning to innovative ways to churn out more housing, from to assembling in an indoor factory to using hemp — yes, the marijuana cousin — to make building blocks for walls.

It’s a response to the country’s shortfall of millions of homes that has led to skyrocketing prices, plunging millions into poverty.

“There’s not enough homes to purchase and there’s not enough places to rent. Period,” said Adrianne Todman, the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under former Joe Biden.

One way to quickly build more is embrace these types of innovations, Todman said. “I can only imagine what our housing situation would be like now if we could have made a decision to be more aggressive in adopting this type of housing” decades ago.

So what are these new ways of building homes? And can they help reduce the cost of new housing, leading to lower rents?

Factory-built housing put together in a week

In a cavernous, metal hall, Eric Schaefer stood in front of a long row of modular homes that moved through the plant, similar to a car on an assembly line.

At a series of stations, workers lay flooring, erected framing, added roofs and screwed on drywall. Everything from electrical wiring to plumbing to kitchen countertops were in place before the homes were shrink-wrapped and ready to be shipped.

The business in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Fading West, has pumped out more than 500 homes in its just over three years of operation, each taking just five to seven days to build, even in the coldest winter months, Schaefer said.

Once assembled in the plant, the narrow townhouse-style homes with white trim, balconies and front porches, are about 90% done. At their final destination they are move-in ready within six weeks, Schaefer said.

The company works with towns, counties and housing nonprofits to help address the shortage of affordable homes, mostly for workers who’ve been squeezed out by sky-high prices in ritzy mountain towns.

That includes Eagle, Colorado, not far from the Vail ski resort, where Fading West worked with Habitat for Humanity to install modular homes at affordable rents for teachers and other school district employees. The homes tend to be on the smaller side, but can be multifamily or single family.

“You can build faster. The faster you build — even at a high quality — means the lower the price,” Schaefer said. “We see this as one of the pieces to the puzzle in helping solve the affordable housing crisis.”

There’s a hefty upfront cost to build the factory, and part of the challenge is a lack of state and federal investment, he said. A patchwork of building codes governing how a structure can be built also makes it difficult, requiring changes to the construction depending on the town or county it is being sent to.

Manufactured housing is similar to modular housing, but the units are constructed on a chassis — like a trailer — and they aren’t subject to the same local building codes. That’s part of the reason they are used more broadly across the U.S.

Roughly 100,000 manufactured homes were shipped to states in 2024, up from some 60,000 a decade earlier, according to Census Bureau data. Estimates of modular homes built annually often put them below 20,000.

Modular homes built by Fading West are seen in Buena Vista, Colo., on Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

3D printing is innovative but still ‘a long game’

Yes, there’s technology to 3D print homes.

A computer-controlled robotic arm equipped with a hose and nozzle moves back and forth, oozing lines of concrete, one on top of the other, as it builds up the wall of a home. It can go relatively quickly and form curved walls unlike concrete blocks.

Grant Hamel, CEO and co-founder of VeroTouch, stood inside one of the homes his company built, the wall behind him made out of rolling layers of concrete, distinct to a 3D printer. The technology could eventually reduce labor costs and the time it takes to build an abode, but is farther off than manufactured or modular methods from making a dent in the housing crisis.

It’s “a long game, to start chipping away at those prices at every step of the construction process,” Hamel said.

The 3D printers are expensive, and so are the engineers and other skilled employees needed to run them, said Ali Memari, director of the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center, whose work has partly focused on 3D printing. It’s also not recognized by international building codes, which puts up more red tape.

The technology is also generally restricted to single-story structures, unless traditional building methods are used as well, Memari said

It’s “a technology at its beginning, it has room to grow, especially when it is recognized in code,” Memari said. “The challenges that I mentioned exist, and they have to be addressed by the research community.”

A hemp-and-lime mixture called hempcrete has ‘a bright future’

Hemp — the plant related to marijuana — is being used more and more in the construction of walls.

The hemp is mixed with other materials, most importantly the mineral lime, forming “hempcrete,” a natural insulation that’s mold- and fire-resistant and can act as outer wall, insulation and inner wall.

Hempcrete still requires wood studs to frame the walls, but it replaces three wall-building components with just one, said Memari, also a professor at Penn State University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Memari is now helping oversee research into making hempcrete that doesn’t need the wood studs.

As much as a million hemp plants to be used for hempcrete can grow on one acre in a matter of months as opposed to trees, which can take years or decades to grow.

The plant is part of the cannabis family but has far less of the psychoactive component, THC, found in marijuana. In 2018,  legalized the production of certain types of hemp. Last year, the International Code Council, which develops international building codes used by all 50 states, adopted hempcrete as an insulation.

Confusion over the legality of growing hemp and the price tag of the machine required to process the plant, called a decorticator, are barriers to hempcrete becoming more widespread in housing construction, Memari said.

Still, he said, “hempcrete has a bright future.”

___

Associated Press video journalist Thomas Peipert contributed to this report from Buena Vista, Colorado.

Dollar Tree plans to sell Family Dollar to private equity firms for $1B

Chesapeake-based discount retailer has reached a with Brigade Capital Management, a New York-based global asset management firm, and Macellum Capital Management, an investment firm with headquarters also in New York, to acquire its brand for about $1 billion after a decade of trying to make its of the bargain chain fit.

Family Dollar will continue to be headquartered in , according to a Wednesday news release.

“This is a major milestone in our multiyear transformation journey to help us fully achieve our potential,” Dollar Tree CEO Mike Creedon said in a statement. “We will continue to grow and optimize our Dollar Tree business to maximize value for Dollar Tree associates, customers and shareholders with an enhanced focus on compelling initiatives, including our expanded assortment, significant planned new store openings across the United States and transactions that advance our growth strategy.”

Creedon joined Dollar Tree in 2022 as chief operating officer and was appointed interim CEO in November after former CEO Rick Dreiling stepped down, citing health problems. Creedon joined the company following its C-suite shakeup in summer 2022.

Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar for $8.5 billion in 2015 after a bidding war with rival Dollar General.

The union didn’t come with a happy ending. Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said that after acquiring the rival chain, Dollar Tree struggled with supply chain issues, poor store locations and other operational difficulties.

“Basically, Dollar Tree bit off far more than it could chew,” he said.

Last year Dollar Tree announced that it planned to close hundreds of Family Dollar stores. The company also said at the time that it would record a $950 million impairment against the name Family Dollar, on top of a $1.07 billion goodwill charge.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025, depending on regulatory approvals and standard closing conditions. Dollar Tree estimated that the proceeds from the sale will total about $804 million and that the company will receive $350 million in tax benefits from losses on the sale.

Dollar Tree operates 16,500 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces as of Feb. 1. Net sales for the year ending Feb. 1 were $17.6 billion, an increase of 4.7% over the previous year.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. 

JMU introduces next president

James Madison University on Wednesday announced that University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Chancellor James C. Schmidt will be the next of Virginia’s fifth largest public university.

The university’s board of visitors, who voted to affirm his appointment earlier in the day, announced Schmidt’s selection during a morning ceremony at the university’s campus. His tenure will begin on July 1.

Schmidt thanked the board for their confidence in him and said he looked forward to working with them to move the college forward. He said he hopes the university can reach its “exciting potential” and encouraged the staff and faculty to “dream bigger.”

“JMU has momentum,” Schmidt said. “Together, we will develop a new strategic plan that will maintain this momentum and position JMU for distinction and long-term success in a challenging higher ed environment. We will be known as a center of innovation, as a trusted partner locally at the state level — in Richmond and across our commonwealth and beyond. I am thrilled to work with all of you to accelerate JMU growth and trajectory in some exciting areas.”

Schmidt has worked in for more than 30 years. During his time as UW-Eau Claire’s chancellor, a role he’s held since 2013, the university has been ranked among the top 10 regional public universities in the Midwest by U.S. News & World Report.

Schmidt has been “a stellar fundraiser” at UW-Eau Claire, according to a news release, bringing in one of the largest gifts in that university’s history: a $70 million commitment to help construct an indoor athletics facility and event center. He also previously held roles as vice president for university advancement at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, and as vice president for student affairs at Riverland Community College in Austin, Minnesota.

JMU’s next president said Wednesday he hopes to advance James Madison by identifying and building on the university’s strengths and seeking opportunities, shining a light on the work of the school’s faculty and working to figure out how to build on “the amazing student culture that already exists here.” Schmidt added that the school has an opportunity to grow industry partnerships, collaborate with Harrisonburg and Rockingham County and contribute to the economic success of Virginia.

“One of the things I love to do, and as chancellor for 12 years, I’ve owned this as a skill, is to understand the unique strengths of an institution,” Schmidt said. “I love to identify where the passion and the action is, and I will be your president and chief storyteller. So I need to hear those stories about what makes JMU special and learn more about what it means to be a Royal Duke.”

He holds a doctorate in educational policy and administration from the University of Minnesota, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Winona State University.

JMU Rector Suzanne Obenshain said in a statement that she’s confident Schmidt’s and skillset “will continue JMU’s positive momentum into the future with an entrepreneurial mindset that will encourage innovation, creativity, collaboration and big thinking.”

Charlie King has served as JMU’s interim president since July, succeeding Jonathan Alger, who left the position after a dozen years to be president at American University in Washington, D.C. King retired from JMU in 2021, after serving as the university’s chief financial officer and senior vice president of administration and finance for 25 years.

In a 2024 interview, King said he had no interest in staying in the role permanently. “I’m finding out every day this is a young person’s job, not an old man’s job,” he said.

Kay Coles James, a former secretary of the commonwealth, was appointed to JMU’s board by Gov. Glenn Youngkin and chaired the presidential search committee. James was appointed by then- President George W. Bush as director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 2001 and is also a former president of Washington, D.C., conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and is an adviser to Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC.

During an interview last year, James didn’t hesitate when asked whether she views her role as carrying out Youngkin’s vision for the commonwealth’s universities.

“The governor does have an agenda,” she says, “and his agenda is to have one of the best quality higher ed systems in the country.”

Other Youngkin-appointed members of the JMU board who served on the search committee included Republican former state Del. Richard “Dickie” Bell; retired Marine Lt. Col. Jeff Bolander; Teresa Edwards, a regional president for Sentara Health; Food City President and CEO Steve Smith; and Nicole P. Wood, a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

 

 

 

Judge orders a June trial for US government’s felony case against Boeing

A federal judge in Texas has set a June trial date for the U.S. government’s years-old conspiracy case against Arlington County-headquartered for misleading regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed, killing 346 people.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor did not explain in the scheduling order he issued on Tuesday why he decided to set the case for trial. Lawyers for the company and the have spent months trying to renegotiate a July 2024 plea agreement that called for Boeing to plead guilty to a single felony charge.

The judge rejected that in December, saying that diversity, inclusion and equity policies the Justice Department had in place at the time might influence the selection of a monitor to oversee the company’s compliance with the terms of its proposed sentence.

Since then, O’Connor had three times extended the deadline for the two sides to report how they planned to proceed. His most recent extension, granted earlier this month, gave them until April 11, but the judge revoked the remaining time with his Tuesday order.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company did not have a comment on the judge’s order, which laid out a timeline for proceedings leading up to a June 23 trial.

The deal the judge refused to approve would have averted a criminal trial by allowing Boeing to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud Federal Aviation Administration regulators who approved minimal pilot-training requirements for the 737 Max nearly a decade ago. More intensive training in flight simulators would have increased the cost for airlines to operate the then-new plane model.

The development and certification of what has become Boeing’s bestselling airliner became an intense focus of safety investigators after two of Max planes crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019. Many relatives of passengers who died off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia have pushed for the prosecution of former Boeing officials, a public criminal trial and more severe financial punishment for the company.

In response to criticism of last year’s plea deal from victims’ families, prosecutors said they did not have evidence to argue that Boeing’s deception played a role in the crashes. Prosecutors told O’Connor the conspiracy to commit fraud charge was the toughest they could prove against Boeing.

O’Connor did not object in his December ruling against the plea agreement to the sentence Boeing would have faced: a fine of up to $487.2 million with credit given for $243.6 million in previously paid penalties; a requirement to invest $455 million in compliance and safety programs; and outside oversight during three years of probation.

Instead, the judge focused his negative assessment on the process for selecting an outsider to keep an eye on Boeing’s actions to prevent fraud. He expressed particular concern that the agreement “requires the parties to consider race when hiring the independent monitor … ‘in keeping with the (Justice) Department’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.’”

“In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency. The parties’ efforts only serve to undermine this confidence in the government and Boeing’s ethics and anti-fraud efforts,” O’Connor wrote.

An executive order President Donald Trump signed during the first week of his second term ended diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the , likely rendering the judge’s concerns moot.

Boeing negotiated the plea deal only after the Justice Department determined last year that the company violated a 2021 agreement that had protected it against criminal prosecution on the same fraud-conspiracy charge.

Government officials started reexamining the case after a door plug panel blew off an Alaska Airlines 737 Max during flight in January 2024. That incident renewed concerns about quality and safety at Boeing, and put the company under intense scrutiny by regulators and lawmakers.

Boeing lawyers said last year that if the plea deal were rejected, the company would challenge the Justice Department’s finding that it breached the earlier agreement. O’Connor helped Boeing’s position by writing in his December decision that it was not clear what the company did to violate the 2021 deal.

Cooling equipment manufacturer plans $29.9M expansion in Botetourt

Munters, an air treatment and climate control solutions company with its global headquarters in Sweden, plans to invest $29.95 million on a 200,000-square-foot of its facility in , according to a Tuesday announcement by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The new manufacturing facility, which will be devoted to data center solutions, will be built on 30 acres at the , adjacent to Munters’ current operation in Daleville. The expansion is expected to create 270 jobs.

The cooling solutions manufactured by Munters is used by various industries, including , which use it to keep expensive servers and other technological equipment from overheating.

Stefan Aspman, president of data center technologies and group vice president of Munters AB. Photo courtesy Munters.
Stefan Aspman, of data center technologies and group vice president of Munters AB. Photo courtesy Munters.

“Munters has experienced strong growth in its data center business over the past five years, with new facilities in Daleville and [Cork, Ireland], as well as acquisitions in Italy and Thailand,” Stefan Aspman, president of data center technologies and group vice president of Munters AB, parent company of the Munters U.S. subsidiary, said in a statement.

“To meet the expanding U.S. market,” continued Aspman, “we are enlarging our Virginia facility, creating a Data Center Technologies production campus. Together with our Texas facility, this will provide nearly 700,000 square feet of space dedicated to innovative, energy-efficient data center cooling systems.”

When completed, the expansion will also allow Munters’ to expand production of its Geoclima high-efficiency chiller line for U.S. data centers. Munters acquired Geoclima, an Italian manufacturer of air- and water-cooled chillers, in October.

In 2007, Munters purchased DesChamps Technologies, a facility in Buena Vista that manufactured custom outside air conditioning equipment for commercial buildings. In 2021, Munters announced plans to build a larger facility at the Botetourt Center at Greenfield.

“Munters’ continued growth in the Roanoke region of Virginia is an economic bellwether,” John Hull, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership, said in a statement. “An expansion less than three years after establishing its operations in the region is a signal that business is good and that Botetourt County and the Roanoke Region have supported a new corporate family member.”

Youngkin approved a $1 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Botetourt County with the project. Additionally, Munters received a $500,000 Virginia Investment Performance grant, an incentive used to encourage continued capital investment by existing Virginia companies.

Munters is eligible for a grant from the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Access program, which assists localities in providing adequate road access. It will also be assisted by the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, which provides services and funding to support employee recruitment and training activities.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Botetourt County, Roanoke Regional Partnership and the Greater Roanoke Workforce Development Board on the project.

 

Kroger blames Albertsons for merger’s demise in new court filings

Kroger is denying ‘ claims that it didn’t do enough to ensure regulatory approval of the companies’ planned .

In court papers filed Tuesday in the Delaware Court of Chancery, said Albertsons disregarded the companies’ merger agreement and worked secretly with a partner, C&S Wholesalers, to try to force Kroger to divest more stores to C&S.

Kroger also claimed that Albertsons was secretly planning to sue Kroger if the didn’t go through long before the merger actually fell apart in December. Kroger said in Tuesday’s court filing that it should not be forced to pay Albertsons a $600 million termination fee as well as billions of dollars in fees.

In a statement Tuesday, Albertsons said it was Kroger that failed to honor the merger agreement.

“Kroger’s self-interested conduct doomed the merger, and we are now focused on returning value to Albertsons’ shareholders to compensate for those losses,” Albertsons said.

Kroger and Albertsons first proposed the merger in 2022. They argued that combining would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart and Costco.

But the Federal Trade Commission and two states — Washington and Colorado — sued to block the merger last year, saying it would raise prices and lower workers’ wages by eliminating competition. It also said Kroger and Albertsons’ plan to divest 579 stores C&S Wholesalers was inadequate to ensure competition, since C&S was ill-equipped to take on so many stores.

In December, judges in Washington and Oregon halted the merger in two rulings issued within hours of each other.

Kroger said even after lower ruled, it believed the merger still had a chance of going through. Kroger said it told Albertsons it was planning to re-engage with the after Donald Trump’s election because it thought the FTC under Trump would be less hostile to mergers.

But instead, Albertsons filed a lawsuit against Kroger the day after the lower court rulings. Albertsons said Kroger refused to divest more stores, even as it became clear that regulators weren’t satisfied with its plans. Albertsons said Kroger also should have sought other buyers beyond C&S to satisfy regulators’ concerns.

Trump’s crypto empire set to expand with new stablecoin and investment fund offerings

President Donald Trump’s crypto empire is expanding with the recent announcements of a new dollar-backed and investment funds for digital assets. The moves are the latest in the norm-defying ways the has leaned into projects that could significantly boost his personal wealth while in office.

World Liberty Financial, a venture Trump helped launch last year, announced Tuesday that it plans to launch USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar.

Stablecoins are among the fastest growing segments of the cryptocurrency industry. They are typically backed by a government-issued currency, like the dollar, or to gold, making them better suited to commercial transactions than more volatile digital assets like or other cryptocurrencies.

“We’re offering a digital dollar stablecoin that sovereign investors and major institutions can confidently integrate into their strategies for seamless, secure cross-border transactions,” Zach Witkoff, a World Liberty Financial co-founder, said in a statement Tuesday.

World Liberty’s announcement comes amid a push by , with strong support by the White House, to pass legislation that supporters say would make it easier for stablecoin companies to operate and grow in the U.S.

Witkoff and his father, Trump’s special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff, helped launch World Liberty Financial with Trump and his sons last year. Under the terms outlined on the company’s website, a Trump-owned company has the “right to receive 75% of the net protocol revenues” from World Liberty Financial after expenses.

On Monday, Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. announced it was partnering with the crypto-trading firm Crypto.com to launch exchange-traded funds for investors to purchase. The funds, which are set to be released later this year, will include a “unique ETF basket of cryptocurrencies” as well as “securities with a Made in America focus spanning diverse industries such as energy,” TMTG said in an announcement.

TMTG is the parent company of Trump’s social media company, Truth Social. Trump has no decision-making role at the company, but he owns a majority stake and is its largest shareholder. TMTG’s stock price jumped following the announcement.

The recent announcements add to a growing list of crypto-related projects that Trump has endorsed in ways that critics say are inappropriate for a public office holder.

Just days before taking office, Trump launched his own meme coin that initially saw a massive price spike followed by a prolonged slide. Meme coins are highly speculative assets that often start as a joke and have no real value. Trump has also promoted online watch and sneaker stores that have branched out into selling crypto-related Trump products, including a “Crypto President” timepiece that sells for $100,000.

Once a crypto skeptic, Trump has since embraced digital assets and pledged to make the U.S. the “world capital” for cryptocurrencies. He’s taken several early steps to help boost the crypto industry, which spent heavily to help Trump win last year’s election and has emerged as a potent political force.

Before taking office, the Trump family business released a voluntary ethics agreement that prohibits the president from “day-to-day” decision making of his companies and limits financial information shared with him. But that agreement doesn’t bar him from promoting his crypto-related products, like he did on social media Sunday when touting his meme coin.

“I LOVE $TRUMP — SO COOL!!! The Greatest of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,” Trump said on Truth Social, which briefly caused a spike in the meme coin’s price.