Legal marijuana is the fastest-growing industry in the United States and if the trend toward legalization spreads to all 50 states, marijuana could become larger than the organic food industry, according to a new report obtained by The Huffington Post.
Researchers from The ArcView Group, a cannabis industry investment and research firm based in Oakland, California, found that the U.S. market for legal cannabis grew 74 percent in 2014 to $2.7 billion, up from $1.5 billion in 2013.
The group surveyed hundreds of medical and recreational marijuana retailers in states where sales are legal, as well as ancillary business operators and independent cultivators of the plant, over the course of seven months during 2013 and 2014. ArcView also compiled data from state agencies, nonprofit organizations and private companies in the marijuana industry for a more complete look at the marketplace.
"In the last year, the rise of the cannabis industry went from an interesting cocktail conversation to being taken seriously as the fastest growing industry in America," Troy Dayton, CEO of The ArcView Group and publisher of the third edition of the State of Legal Marijuana Markets, said in the executive summary of the report. "At this point, it’s hard to imagine that any serious businessperson who is paying attention hasn’t spent some time thinking about the possibilities in this market."
Graph courtesy of ArcView Market Research.
The report also projects a strong year for legal marijuana in 2015 and projects 32 percent growth in the market. Dayton said that places "cannabis in the top spot" when compared with other fast-growing industries.
Over the next five years, the marijuana industry is expected to continue to grow, with ArcView predicting that 14 more states will legalize recreational marijuana and two more states will legalize medical marijuana. At least 10 states are already considering legalizing recreational marijuana in just the next two years through ballot measures or state legislatures.
To date, four states -- Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon -- have legalized retail marijuana. Washington, D.C., voters also legalized recreational marijuana use, but sales currently remain banned. Twenty-three states have legalized medical cannabis. Still, marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.
The report projects that, by 2019, all of the state-legal marijuana markets combined will make for a potential overall market worth almost $11 billion annually.
Graph courtesy of ArcView Market Research.
The report also breaks out some interesting marijuana trends from around the nation. California still has the largest legal cannabis market in the U.S., at $1.3 billion. Arizona was found to have the fastest-growing major marijuana market in 2014, expanding to $155 million, up more than $120 million from the previous year. Medical marijuana is already legal in Arizona and California and recreational legalization measures are likely to appear on the 2016 ballots in both states.
More than 1.5 million shoppers purchased legal marijuana from a dispensary, either medical or recreational, in 2014. Five states now boast marijuana markets that are larger than $100 million, and in Colorado and Washington -- the first states to open retail marijuana shops in the U.S. -- consumers bought $370 million in marijuana products last year.
Oregon and Alaska are expected to add a combined $275 million in retail marijuana sales in their first year of operation, the report projects. And while D.C. has also legalized recreational marijuana use, ArcView couldn't project a market size in the District because of an ongoing attempt by congressional Republicans to block the new law.
Graph courtesy of ArcView Market Research.
The huge growth potential of the industry appears to be limited only by the possibility of states rejecting the loosening of their drug laws. The report projects a marijuana industry that could be more valuable than the entire organic food industry -- that is, if the legalization trend continues to the point that all 50 states legalize recreational marijuana. The total market value of all states legalizing marijuana would top $36.8 billion -- more than $3 billion larger than the organic food industry.
"These are exciting times," Dayton said in the executive summary, "and new millionaires and possibly billionaires are about to be made, while simultaneously society will become safer and freer."
The McDonald’s menu could be getting even smaller.
Mike Andres, McDonald’s U.S. CEO, hinted on a conference call with analysts Friday that the chain may cut more menu items.
“This menu rationalization process is clearly ongoing,” Andres said. “As we look forward, we’ve added quite a number of products over the last 18 months or so, so we’re rationalizing that.”
Andres was responding to a question from an analyst about whether the chain would be willing to keep cutting the menu if the recent decision to slash eight items proved successful. As part of the test, McDonald's went from four quarter pounders with cheese to one, three premium chicken sandwiches to one and three snack wraps to one.
CNBC reported Friday that according to more than one franchisee, the Bacon Habanero Ranch Quarter Pounder, Bacon and Cheese Quarter Pounder, Premium Chicken Club Sandwich and Premium Ranch BLT Chicken Sandwich will be nixed.
So far, the company's menu changes have led to improved sales and better throughput -- a measure of how many orders are processed in a given period of time -- in test markets, Andres said on the call.
McDonald’s could use the help. The chain’s profits plunged 21 percent from the same quarter a year ago, according to the fourth-quarter earnings report released Friday. The past few months also marked the fifth quarter in a row that McDonald’s reported a drop in sales at U.S. stores open at least a year, an important metric of a restaurant's health.
Analysts, the media, franchisees and even McDonald’s executives have blamed the chain’s bloated menu for its poor performance in recent months. The menu -- which had just nine items in the 1950s -- ballooned to more than 100 items over the past several years, ranging from things like Egg McMuffins to a few McWrap varieties to smoothies.
The complicated menu has made it harder for McDonald’s to deliver what it’s known for: cheap and quick food. It also comes at a time when Americans are turning increasingly to chains like Chipotle and Five Guys, which have a handful of menu items but offer diners the ability to customize their orders.
McDonald’s is rolling out its own customizable options for burgers, called Create Your Taste, at 2,000 locations nationwide. Diners can pick from fancy toppings like creamy garlic sauce, guacamole and pepper jack cheese. Andres hinted on the call that the program could make it easier for the fast food giant to cut even more from its menu.
“That offers unlimited variety to our guests, they can now choose whatever they want, so it takes some of the pressure off a lot of the other menu items,” he said.
Think there are already a ton of people on Facebook? Think again.
Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sat down with Arianna on HuffPost Live at Davos Friday to discuss the social network's initiative, internet.org, which seeks to bring online resources, like Facebook and Wikipedia, to areas of the world that aren't connected to the Internet yet.
According to recent research by McKinsey & Co., 4.4 billion people don't have Internet access.
"It's really exciting because we believe that when people see the power of data, they will improve their lives," Sandberg said. "And we see that all over the world."
Sandberg stressed the importance of bringing these resources to women, who are well poised to pass technology on to the next generation.
"We know the benefits of getting women connected are at least as good as the benefits of getting men connected, and possibly, and probably, more," she said.
Below, live updates from the 2015 Davos Annual Meeting:
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Today 8:58 AM ESTMcAfee On Evolution And Technology
"Evolution has wired us; we have social drives," McAfee said.
"Could there be a piece of technology that figures out an intelligent next question to ask somebody? Yeah," McAfee said.
"For 200 years of industrial technology, we've been making workers obsolete," McAfee said.
McAfee said nobody knows if we're reaching the point where technological developments could lead to unemployment.
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Today 8:56 AM ESTAndrew McAfee At Davos
Andrew McAfee of the MIT Sloan School of Management on HuffPost Live
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Today 8:46 AM ESTBruder On The Barriers Women Face
"We strive to have the majority of our graduates female," EFE's Ron Bruder said.
"I don't think there's an official barrier but there's a social and structural barrier in a lot of these countries toward women," Bruder added.
Bruder said his company creates local foundations, and those foundations tackle those issues on EFE's behalf.
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Today 8:42 AM ESTEFE's McAuliffe And Bruder: Young People Need Jobs
EFE's president and CEO Jamie McAuliffe, along with founder and chair Ron Bruder, sat down with HuffPost Live at Davos on Saturday.
Bruder said it's vital to the global economy that youths have jobs.
McAuliffe said EFE starts with businesses.
"Where are the jobs?" he said.
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Today 8:14 AM EST'Every Woman Has The Opportunity To Be An Activist'
Catchafire Founder & CEO Rachael Chong joins HuffPost Live to share her thoughts on how to get more women to Davos.
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Today 8:11 AM EST'Doing Less, But Better'
Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, said his book grew out of working with people who are really successful.
"Success can become a catalyst for failure," he said.
McKeown said leaders at Davos have experience with plateauing after achieving professional success. To avoid that, McKeown said, people must find a way to expand their contribution without doing more.
"The whole idea is about doing less, but better," he said.
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Today 8:00 AM ESTOnline Data Is Like Money
"In some sense, we're the next generation of banks," Smith said, noting you wouldn't put your data in a place you don't trust just like you wouldn't deposit your money at a bank you don't feel is stable.
Smith said the most difficult part about investigating a hacking crime is identifying and finding a hacker.
"Our prisons are not full of hackers," Smith said, noting hackers are often in countries outside the U.S.
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Today 7:57 AM ESTBrad Smith At Davos
Brad Smith at Davos
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Today 7:55 AM ESTBrad Smith On Outdated Technology Laws
"2015 needs to be a year for new solutions, and that's what we're proposing. We do need new laws in the United States and in Europe," Smith said. "We're trying to manage 21st century technology issues with laws that were written in the '80s and '90s."
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Today 7:54 AM ESTMicrosoft's Brad Smith On The Sony Hack
Microsoft's Brad Smith said the Sony hack was an example of how the Internet could be used as a way to both fight against and fight for free expression.
"We saw the Internet being used both as a weapon to attack free expression... and as a tool to defend free expression," Smith said.
Brad said lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe need to discuss how to increase online privacy while still providing law enforcement with information they need.
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Today 7:34 AM ESTBusque On Encouraging Women
As an engineer, Busque said she's always worked primarily around men.
"For me, it's never something I've focused on but it definitely is there and is an issue," Busque said.
"I've some very strong female role models, so I think that's an important thing," she added, saying she regularly thinks about how she can encourage women at her own company to take on leadership roles and grow as employees.
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Today 7:30 AM ESTLeah Busque At Davos
Leah Busque on HuffPost Live
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Today 7:29 AM ESTLeah Busque On The Responsibility Of Job Creators
Leah Busque, founder and CEO of TaskRabbit, said as a business leader it's important to consider the quality of the lives you're curating for workers.
"I believe there's been a slippery slope of new companies that have formed in the name of on demand services ... that maybe aren't having as much of a focus as they should on the worker," Busque said.
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Today 7:22 AM EST'We Have To Use Our Voice'
Chong spoke about what it's like to be one of the few women at Davos.
"It's not always easy to stand up and say, 'hey, that was a sexist remark,'" she said.
"I think we have to use our voice," she added. "Particularly with businesswomen, there are so few, and as role models they're so important."
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Today 7:21 AM ESTFrom Investment Banking To Entrepreneur
Chong explained how she left the world of investment banking -- a job she said she actually enjoyed -- to become an entrepreneur.
"While I was banking I still wanted to be able to give back and at the time the only opportunity was, once a year we'd get put on a bus and go build a house," Chong said. "All volunteer work is good, but when you think about maximizing impact, bankers building houses is not necessarily the best use of their time."
"I became really obsessed with then finding a way to volunteer my skills," Chong added.
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Today 7:19 AM EST'It Gives People A Sense Of Purpose'
Chong said the people who volunteer with Catchafire gain something by giving up their time and services.
"It gives people a sense of purpose," Chong said.
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Today 7:18 AM ESTRachael Chong At Davos
Rachael Chong at HuffPost Live
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Today 7:17 AM ESTHow Busy People Make It Work
Rachael Chong, founder and CEO of Catchafire, said it can be hard to get professionals to donate their time, but busy people somehow still make it work.
"The busiest people are the ones who usually fit in the most stuff and are the most productive," she said.
Thanks to @ariannahuff we'll #thrive on the #wef15 #purposejourney in #Davos via #bulletproofcoffee and @thirdmetric pic.twitter.com/qzagkLgR86
— Valerie Keller (@Valerie_Keller_) January 24, 2015
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Today 6:10 AM ESTJean-Philippe Courtois At The World Economic Forum 2015
Microsoft International President Jean-Philippe Courtois joins HuffPost Live to talk about technology at Davos, NSA reform and some exciting products that are on the horizon.
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Today 5:55 AM ESTLesser: Leaders Should Set A Tone
"I just think if leaders don't set a tone about why we do what we do and why we do it in a way that's enriching for all of us, then people just assume all leadership cares about is the bottom line," Lesser said.
Lesser said he tries to lead by example but he's "probably on email too much."
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Today 5:53 AM EST'Totally A Positive'
"In our world, having great talent want to come and want to stay is the single biggest driver of success," Lesser said.
Lesser said empowering millennial workers and making them aware of the impact they'll have on the world through their work has increased the success of BCG.
"I really think the more we've invested to make it a unique work environment... it's totally a positive," Lesser said.
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Today 5:47 AM ESTHow BCG Helped Respond To The Ebola Crisis
Boston Consultant Group president and CEO Rich Lesser and Wendy Woods, global leader of Social Impact for BCG, joined HuffPost Live at Davos on Saturday to share how their company helped the UN respond to the Ebola crisis.
"It's something that we felt most privileged to be a part of," Lesser said.
Woods said it's normal for government entities to reach out to consulting groups, but usually the process takes a lot more time.
"The coordination has been better than I've ever seen it on a global scale," Woods said.
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Today 5:37 AM ESTCourtois: New Devices Are Letting People 'Do Great Stuff'
Courtois said new devices are "enabling people to do more stuff, to do great stuff."
Courtois also spoke about new technology being developed by Microsoft that will allow users to interact with 3D holograms.
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Today 5:33 AM ESTMicosoft's Role After The French Terror Attack
Courtois shared how Microsoft played a role after the recent terror attacks in Paris, partnering with French law enforcement and the FBI to get police information they needed within 45 minutes of the attack's start.
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Today 5:32 AM ESTJean-Philippe Courtois At Davos
Jean-Philippe Courtois on HuffPost Live
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Today 5:32 AM ESTWhat Microsoft's Doing To Protect Customers
Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, spoke about the steps his company is taking to maintain the public's trust as data moves further into the Cloud.
Courtois said Microsoft has been focusing on several aspects: improving how they anchor the data; certification and compliance of infrastructure; and transparency.
"This is a big deal to actually report back to society what we do with data and how we deal with government requests," Courtois said about being a transparent company.
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Today 5:25 AM ESTValerie Keller and Cheryl Grise At The World Economic Forum 2015
Valerie Keller and Cheryl Grise of the EY Beacon Institute talk with HuffPost Live about how to transform your business through a better sense of purpose.
SkyMall, a company known mainly for trying to sell you things no one needs while you sat on an airplane, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday.
The company didn't sell much from the catalog in recent years. Instead it sold a good chunk of its products online. But it still relied on people looking at the catalog on the plane to drum up interest in its website. And, with in-flight wifi, that was happening less and less.
SkyMall built a business on boredom, and people are less bored on planes than they used to be.
The Internet was instantly nostalgic about the imminent disappearance of the SkyMall catalog and responded by listing things you could have bought from SkyMall -- but hopefully never did.
All of these lists published Friday morning.
1. 11 Of The Most Ridiculous Items Sold By SkyMall (Business Insider)
2. We found the most insane item on SkyMall (Fusion)
3. 28 Essential Things You’ll Never Be Able To Buy From SkyMall Again (BuzzFeed)
4. In memoriam of SkyMall products: A lost national treasure (Mashable)
5. 18 Fantastic Products from SkyMall, America's Final Great Bastion of Innovation (Yahoo)
6. 5 things journalists actually could have used from SkyMall (Poynter)
7. As SkyMall files for bankruptcy, the Internet memorializes its crazy products (Daily Dot)
8. Here Are 12 of SkyMall’s Weirdest Products (Time)
9. THE BEST (=WORST) OF SKYMALL (Thrillist)
10. Our 6 Favorite Health and Beauty Products From SkyMall (Health)
11. 22 ICONIC SkyMall Products to Buy Before It's Too Late (Cosmopolitan)
And of course, The Huffington Post has been doing this for years, here, here, and here.
Last year Wired went out a limb and predicted what SkyMall will look like in the year 2040.
WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - When President Barack Obama called attention on Tuesday to rising U.S. wages, he noted employers had not planned so many raises in years. But what he left out is that government data suggests actual wage increase are stuck in low gear.
"Today, thanks to a growing economy, the recovery is touching more and more lives," Obama said in his annual State of the Union address.
The president was not entirely triumphant in his speech, calling on Washington to help lift more Americans out of poverty by raising the minimum wage. He also said reforms to the country's education system were needed to help more people get high-paying jobs.
But in making a case that America had broken out of the economic doldrums, he said: "Wages are finally starting to rise again."
While it is true that earnings are rising, the problem with that statement is that multiple government surveys suggest income growth remains much slower than before the 2007-09 recession.
Average hourly earnings in the private sector rose just 1.7 percent in the year through December, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
On the eve of the recession, which began in December 2007, earnings were growing more than 3 percent every 12 months. Since 2010, they have averaged about 2 percent growth.
Obama also noted that a bigger share of small-business owners planned to raise wages than at any time since 2007.
That was an apparent reference to data from the National Federation of Independent Business from December, which genuinely lifted hopes workers were poised to get a pop in their paychecks.
But even relatively upbeat data on actual earnings suggests workers are not getting much in the way of raises.
A separate Labor Department survey on employment compensation showed wages growing 2.1 percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier. That was the fastest pace since 2009, but still well below growth rates in 2007, when they were consistently above 3 percent. (Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Jan 21 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Tootsie Roll Industries Inc has died after more than half a century at the helm of the U.S. candy maker, sparking speculation that the company could soon be ripe for acquisition.
Tootsie Roll's shares rose as much as 8 percent to a 17-month high of $33.28 on Wednesday.
Melvin Gordon died, aged 95, after a brief illness, according to a statement from the company he had headed since 1962. His wife, Ellen Gordon, takes over as chief executive.
The Tootsie Roll is named after the daughter of an Austrian immigrant, Leo Hirshfield, who first produced the chewy chocolate candy in a small New York City store in 1896. Now based in Chicago, the company has a market capitalization of about $1.9 billion.
Ellen Gordon, who is in her 80s and was previously chief operating officer, is the company's largest shareholder, with a 26 percent stake as of March 14. Melvin Gordon had a 21.9 percent stake as of Dec. 12.
"There's been speculation for years that it's going to be sold," said Timothy Chen, analyst at Rhone Trading Partners.
Growing through acquisitions, Tootsie Roll became the world's largest maker of lollipops when it bought The Charms Co in 1988.
It later acquired Sugar Daddy and Junior Mints and, in 2004, Concord Confections, adding Dubble Bubble and Wack-o-Wax to the candies it produces.
After four straight years of growth, though, Tootsie Roll reported revenue of $543.4 million for 2013, a 1.2 percent drop.
One of the oldest CEOs of a U.S. company, Gordon rarely gave interviews.
The company was well-known, however, for its commercials: it claims to have received more than 20,000 letters from children trying to answer a question posed by an owl in a 1970s commercial: how many licks does it take to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop?
Elliott Schlang, managing director of the Great Lakes Review, said the popularity of Tootsie Roll's brands, as well as its real estate assets in Chicago and the fact that Gordon's children are not directly involved in the business, make the company an attractive target.
Schlang said the company could be a target for candy makers, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc through its See's Candies division. Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tootsie Roll's shares closed up 7.1 percent at $32.99 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Additional reporting by Siddharth Cavale; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Simon Jennings)
If you've ever bombed a job interview, you know how it feels to replay the whole humiliating experience in your head over and over again. (If you say you haven't, we don't believe you.)
So maybe it was a sense of communal catharsis that helped #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview to become a trending topic on Twitter this weekend, hot on the heels of #FiveWordsToRuinADate. We sincerely hope none of the following examples were learned from experience. But there's some good wisdom here about the exact sorts of things you never, ever want to bring up when meeting with a potential employer.
Ever.
This is a stepping stone. #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview @HeerJeet
— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) January 18, 2015
"Ha whoa, you're on Tinder"
#FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) January 18, 2015
"Is your supervisor's job open?" #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— Delaney Williams (@delaneywilliams) January 18, 2015
Hey, pants are optional, right? #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— Amber Hunt (@ReporterAmber) January 18, 2015
This is Catherine, my mommy. #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— John Bowman (@johnbowman) January 18, 2015
Need to take this call #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— susan vavrick (@edit_susan) January 18, 2015
I'm not cannibalistic per se. #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— Richard Kadrey (@Richard_Kadrey) January 18, 2015
Please use my Lycan name. #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) January 18, 2015
My dad pays your salary. #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— Gamer Fuel (@timoneil5000) January 18, 2015
#FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
oh was this your chair
— darth™ (@darth) January 17, 2015
"You mean 'fewer,' not 'less.' " #FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— Melinda Henneberger (@MelindaDC) January 18, 2015
This is the craziest dream.
#FiveWordsToRuinAJobInterview
— Rick G. Rosner (@dumbassgenius) January 18, 2015
The hottest fast food chain in the country has been out of a key menu item for four days at hundreds of its restaurants, and it's still not clear when it will come back.
Chipotle announced Tuesday that about one-third of its more than 1,600 stores would stop selling carnitas, a traditional Mexican dish made by slow-cooking pork until it becomes tender. The popular Mexican chain made the decision earlier this week, after discovering that one of its suppliers didn’t meet its standards for humanely raised pork.
Carnitas is one of just six burrito bases the chain offers.
Chris Arnold, a Chipotle spokesman, wrote in an email that the burrito joint is looking into several different ways to rebuild its supply, including getting more pork from current suppliers, using different cuts of pork (the dish is typically made from the shoulder) and looking for additional suppliers. Carnitas make up about 6 percent of entree orders, he said.
“We are working through those options now, but it’s too soon to say how long this might last,” Arnold said.
It's also too early to tell whether the shortage will hurt Chipotle's bottom line. The company's stock price was down slightly when the market opened the morning after the chain first announced the shortage. Still, at around $711 a share, the Friday stock price was up about 34 percent from the same time last year.
A sign declaring no carnitas at a Manhattan Chipotle Friday.
Despite a sign notifying customers there weren't carnitas, several customers at a Chipotle in Manhattan’s Union Square during Friday's lunch rush said they hadn’t heard about the shortage. Many said they typically order something else; others prioritized ethically treated animals over their tastebuds.
“It would make me not want to come here more if they did have the (carnitas) and (the pork) was mistreated,” 15-year-old carnitas fan Lincoln Barron said after being told the reason behind shortage.
Even if some carnitas lovers do turn elsewhere for their fix, the publicity over the shortage will more than make up for any sales hits. There’s marketing power in scarcity, according to Aaron Allen, the founder of Aaron Allen & Associates, a restaurant consulting firm. Though the pork shortage is unintentional, the fact that carnitas is limited makes it a little bit more special, he said.
More significant, in marketing terms, Chipotle’s decision reminds fans why they like the restaurant in the first place. The Mexican chain sells itself as a place that sells fresh, healthy food. That reputation is a big part of why it's been growing rapidly for the past several months, while places like McDonald's have stagnated.
“It’s not just buzz around some promotional activity,” Allen said. “It’s really reinforcing what the brand stands for.”
Of course, Chipotle will still lose some business while carnitas are gone.
“My desire to be there is significantly diminished if they’re not going to have carnitas or if it’s going to be spotty,” said Doug Ludemann, a 36-year-old who owns an aquarium cleaning business near Minneapolis. “It’s not going to draw me in and make me pay 10 bucks for lunch.”
Still, Ludemann said he respects Chipotle's decision, even it means they don't have the only thing he orders there.
“I wish it didn’t mean that I had to not shop there,” he said. “My hope is that it increases the demand for more humanely produced pork.”
The billionaire CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX (who, mind you, also serves as chairman of SolarCity and is now working on the Hyperloop, a super-fast tubular transport system) launched a new project Friday aimed at building a satellite system to bring high-speed Internet to the whole planet. He announced the initiative at the ribbon-cutting of SpaceX's new office in Seattle.
The new venture will be a branch of the private space travel company. The company plans to put hundreds of satellites into orbit around the Earth -- circling the planet at about 750 miles above the surface, far closer than the typical communications satellites that soar at altitudes of 22,000 miles. The goal is to speed up data flows and deliver high-speed Internet to the more than 3 billion people who still have shoddy access to the Web, according to Bloomberg Businessweek’s Ashlee Vance, whose biography of Musk is due out in May.
“Our focus is on creating a global communications system that would be larger than anything that has been talked about to date,” Musk told Vance.
SpaceX did not respond to a request from The Huffington Post for comment on Saturday morning. Friday's event was closed to media, though attendees tweeted photos and excerpts of Musk's speech.
Great meeting with @elonmusk tonight. WA is ready for the next space revolution! @SpaceX pic.twitter.com/SV1nH135q0
— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) January 17, 2015
It’s unclear when the initiative will be completed, though Musk said it will take at least five years to roll out the first generation of satellites. The project could take up to 15 years to reach full capacity. But as with most of Musk’s endeavors, the ultimate ambitions are far loftier. Musk is laying the groundwork for the first interplanetary Internet.
Earlier this month, Musk said he aimed to unveil preliminary plans later this year for a colony on Mars. The network of satellites girdling Earth, providing high-speed Internet from Cleveland to Kampala, would eventually connect to the human outpost on the red planet, too.
“It will be important for Mars to have a global communications network as well,” Musk said. “I think this needs to be done, and I don’t see anyone else doing it.”
The project will cost between $10 billion and $15 billion, Musk said. But the revenues generated from the service will help fund the colonization of Mars.
Musk: Going to cost a lot to build. Ten or fifteen billion dollars, or more. But revenues fund city on Mars.
— Brandon Haber (@malderi) January 17, 2015
Musk: City on Mars isn't cheap. Need a lot of money. This will do it.
— Brandon Haber (@malderi) January 17, 2015
To be sure, these are longterm plans. The company must first perfect its rockets, which will enable cheaper travel to and from the planet’s surface. SpaceX launched a supply ship to the International Space Station last Saturday, but the rocket -- meant to be the world’s first reusable projectile -- crash-landed on a floating seaborne platform.
This post was originally published by Kaiser Health News (KHN). Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service.
In health insurance prices, as in the weather, Alaska and the Sun Belt are extremes. This year Alaska is the most expensive health insurance market for people who do not get coverage through their employers, while Phoenix, Albuquerque, N.M., and Tucson, Ariz., are among the very cheapest.
In this second year of the insurance marketplaces created by the federal health law, the most expensive premiums are in rural spots around the nation: Wyoming, rural Nevada, patches of inland California and the southernmost county in Mississippi, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has compiled premium prices from around the country. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
The most and least expensive regions are determined by the monthly premium for the least expensive “silver” level plan, which is the type most consumers buy and covers on average 70 percent of medical expenses. Premiums in the priciest areas are triple those in the least expensive areas.
Along with the three southwestern cities, the places with the lowest premiums include Louisville, Ky., Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, Knoxville and Memphis, Tenn., and Minneapolis-St. Paul and many of its suburbs, the analysis found.
Highest and Lowest Premiums
Here are the 10 most and least expensive regions in the country – with the counties listed in parenthesis – based on premium prices for the lowest-cost silver plan. Regions are counties that share the same price for the same lowest-cost-plan and are either geographically contiguous or are part of the same rating area created by the state.
Premiums are listed for 40-year-olds; and for most states the difference in prices stays the same for people of any age. Vermont and two upstate New York areas— Ithaca and Plattsburgh—also are among the 10 most expensive places, although those states do not let insurers adjust premiums based on the consumer’s age, making comparisons inexact. Older residents in those states will end up getting better deals than in most places, while younger ones tend to pay more.
10 HIGHEST PREMIUMS
$488 Alaska (entire state)
$459 Ithaca, NY (Tompkins)
$456 Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (Hancock)
$446 Plattsburgh, NY (Clinton)
$440 Rural Wyoming (Albany, Big Horn, Campbell, Carbon, Converse, Crook, Fremont, Goshen, Hot Springs, Johnson, Lincoln, Niobrara, Park, Platte, Sheridan, Sublette, Sweetwater, Teton, Uinta, Washakie, and Weston)
$428 Vermont (entire state)
$418 Rural Nevada (Churchill, Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Mineral, Pershing, and White Pine)
$412 Casper, Wyoming (Natrona)
$410 Inland California (Imperial, Inyo, and Mono)
$401 Cheyenne, Wyoming (Laramie)
10 LOWEST PREMIUMS
$166 Phoenix, Ariz. (Maricopa)
$167 Albuquerque, N.M. (Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance, and Valencia)
$167 Louisville, Ky. (Bullitt, Jefferson, Oldham, and Shelby)
$170 Tucson, Ariz. (Pima and Santa Cruz)
$170 Pittsburgh, Pa. (Allegheny and Erie)
$179 Western Pennsylvania (Beaver, Butler, Washington, Westmoreland, Armstrong, Crawford, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, and Warren)
$181 Minneapolis-St. Paul (Anoka, Benton, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne, Stearns, Washington, and Wright)
$184 Memphis and suburbs (Fayette, Haywood, Lauderdale, Shelby, and Tipton)
$189 North of Minneapolis (Chisago and Isanti)
Starting this month, the cheapest silver plan for a 40-year-old in Alaska costs $488 a month. (Not everyone will have to pay that much because the health law subsidizes premiums for low-and moderate-income people.) A 40-year-old Phoenix resident could pay as little as $166 for the same level plan.
That three-fold spread is similar to the gap between last year’s most expensive area — in the Colorado mountain resort region, where 40-year-olds paid $483—and the least expensive, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, where they paid $154.
Minneapolis remained one of the cheapest areas in the region, although the lowest silver premium rose to $181 after the insurer that offered the cheapest plan last year pulled out of the market. Premiums in four Colorado counties around Aspen and Vail plummeted this year after state insurance regulators lumped them in with other counties in order to bring rates down.
Cynthia Cox, a researcher at the Kaiser foundation, said the number of insurers in a region was a notable similarity among both the most and least expensive areas. “In the most expensive areas only one or two are participating,” she said. “In the least expensive areas there tends to be five or more insurers competing.” She said that other factors, such as whether insurers need state approval for their premiums and the underlying health of the population, may play a role as well in premiums.
The national median premium for a 40-year-old is $269, according to the foundation’s analysis.
Alaska’s lowest silver premium rose 28 percent from last year, ratcheting it up from 10th place last year to the nation’s highest. Only two insurers are offering plans in the state, the same number as last year, but the limited competition is just one reason Alaska’s prices are so high, researchers said. The state has a very high cost of living, which drives up rents and salaries of medical professionals, and insurers said patients racked up high costs last year.
Ceci Connolly, director of PwC’s Health Research Institute, noted that the long distances between providers and patients also added to the costs. Restraining costs in rural areas, she said, “continues to be a challenge” around the country. One reason is that there tend to be fewer doctors and hospitals, so those that are there have more power to dictate higher prices, since insurers have nowhere else to turn.
By contrast, in Maricopa County, Phoenix’s home, the lowest silver premium price dropped 15 percent from last year, when Phoenix did not rank among the lowest areas. A dozen insurers are offering silver plans. “Phoenix, during the boom, attracted a lot of providers so it’s a very robust, competitive market,” said Allen Gjersvig, an executive at the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, which is helping people enroll in the marketplaces.
The cheapest silver plan in Phoenix comes from Meritus, a nonprofit insurance cooperative. The plan is an HMO that provides care through Maricopa Integrated Health System, a safety net system that is experienced in managing care for Medicaid patients. Meritus’ chief executive, Tom Zumtobel, said they brought that plan’s premium down from 2014. The insurer and the health system meet regularly to figure out how to treat complicated cases in the most efficient manner. “We’re working together to get the best outcome,” Zumtobel said.
Katherine Hempstead, who oversees the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s research on health insurance prices, found no significant differences in the designs of the plans that would explain their premiums. “In most of the plans – cheap or expensive – there seemed to be a high deductible and fairly similar cost-sharing,” she said.
When most people think American cuisine, they think pizza, hot dogs and hamburgers.
While these are indeed staples across the country, every state has its own sense of flavor. Now, thanks to a collaboration between The Huffington Post and Yelp, we can see exactly what types of cuisine are most likely to appear in each state.
You may not be surprised to learn that Maine is crazy about seafood. But would you have guessed that Utah has a hankering for Hawaiian?
Yelp figured out which cuisines were most common in each state by examining restaurant listings on its site. The review service uses information pulled by third-party data providers from public records and other sources in order to create its online restaurant listings, according to its website.
To get the data for the map, Yelp first calculated the percentage of total restaurants each cuisine represented in a given state. Then, it compared each percentage with the cuisine's representation in restaurants nationwide. The resulting map, made by HuffPost, shows the cuisines with a disproportionate level of representation in each state.
Restaurants on Yelp can be placed into as many as three categories, so some restaurants may have been counted more than once. For instance, a Kosher vegetarian Chinese restaurant would count as three cuisines.
Check out the map below by HuffPost's Alissa Scheller, using data provided by Yelp, to find out which cuisines are most popular in each state. Below the map is a list of the top five cuisines in each state:
Alabama
Southern -- 256 percent higher than national average.
BBQ -- 145 percent higher than national average.
Cajun -- 96 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 89 percent higher than national average.
Soul food -- 87 percent higher than national average.
Alaska
Filipino -- 208 percent higher than national average.
Fish and chips -- 200 percent higher than national average.
Thai -- 158 percent higher than national average.
Seafood -- 158 percent higher than national average.
Hawaiian -- 90 percent higher than national average.
Arizona
Mexican -- 73 percent higher than national average.
Greek -- 63 percent higher than national average.
Gluten-free -- 57 percent higher than national average.
Buffets -- 54 percent higher than national average.
Mediterranean -- 40 percent higher than national average.
Arkansas
Southern -- 142 percent higher than national average.
BBQ -- 91 percent higher than national average.
Tex-Mex -- 64 percent higher than national average.
Cajun -- 64 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 53 percent higher than national average.
California
Taiwanese -- 264 percent higher than national average.
Filipino -- 226 percent higher than national average.
Vietnamese -- 143 percent higher than national average.
Korean -- 143 percent higher than national average.
Hawaiian -- 125 percent higher than national average.
Colorado
Gluten-free -- 149 percent higher than national average.
Vietnamese -- 65 percent higher than national average.
Mexican -- 55 percent higher than national average.
Soup -- 40 percent higher than national average.
Breakfast/brunch -- 36 percent higher than national average.
Connecticut
Spanish -- 168 percent higher than national average.
Deli -- 95 percent higher than national average.
Italian -- 89 percent higher than national average.
Irish -- 69 percent higher than national average.
Caribbean -- 56 percent higher than national average.
Delaware
Irish -- 166 percent higher than national average.
Cheesesteaks -- 123 percent higher than national average.
Caribbean -- 122 percent higher than national average.
Seafood -- 101 percent higher than national average.
Gastropub -- 87 percent higher than national average.
District of Columbia
Belgian -- 1,711 percent higher than national average.
Ethiopian -- 1,560 percent higher than national average.
African -- 555 percent higher than national average.
Food stands -- 332 percent higher than national average.
French -- 250 percent higher than national average.
Florida
Cuban -- 757 percent higher than national average.
Caribbean -- 286 percent higher than national average.
Peruvian -- 264 percent higher than national average.
Latin -- 217 percent higher than national average.
Spanish -- 159 percent higher than national average.
Georgia
Southern -- 304 percent higher than national average.
Soul food -- 155 percent higher than national average.
Caribbean -- 113 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 103 percent higher than national average.
BBQ -- 57 percent higher than national average.
Hawaii
Hawaiian -- 5028 percent higher than national average.
Ramen -- 1443 percent higher than national average.
Filipino -- 809 percent higher than national average.
Korean -- 465 percent higher than national average.
Food stands -- 380 percent higher than national average.
Idaho
Gastropubs -- 52 percent higher than national average.
Cafes -- 31 percent higher than national average.
Mexican -- 26 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 25 percent higher than national average.
Traditional American -- 25 percent higher than national average.
Illinois
Pakistani -- 80 percent higher than national average.
Hot dogs -- 76 percent higher than national average.
Middle Eastern -- 34 percent higher than national average.
Greek -- 25 percent higher than national average.
Indian-Pakistani -- 23 percent higher than national average.
Indiana
Pizza -- 43 percent higher than national average.
Tex-Mex -- 38 percent higher than national average.
Fast food -- 37 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 30 percent higher than national average.
Burgers -- 29 percent higher than national average.
Iowa
Buffets -- 127 percent higher than national average.
Pizza -- 64 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 21 percent higher than national average.
Traditional American -- 7 percent higher than national average.
Fast food -- 5 percent higher than national average.
Kansas
BBQ -- 48 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 38 percent higher than national average.
Tex-Mex -- 35 percent higher than national average.
Mexican -- 33 percent higher than national average.
Fast food -- 31 percent higher than national average.
Kentucky
Southern -- 111 percent higher than national average.
Fast food -- 66 percent higher than national average.
Tex-Mex -- 56 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 52 percent higher than national average.
Burgers -- 50 percent higher than national average.
Louisiana
Cajun -- 1,540 percent higher than national average.
Southern -- 219 percent higher than national average.
Soul food -- 198 percent higher than national average.
Seafood -- 158 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 75 percent higher than national average.
Maine
Seafood -- 321 percent higher than national average.
Irish -- 135 percent higher than national average.
Gastropubs -- 102 percent higher than national average.
Gluten-free -- 78 percent higher than national average.
Diners -- 77 percent higher than national average.
Maryland
Peruvian -- 200 percent higher than national average.
Cheesesteaks -- 121 percent higher than national average.
Caribbean -- 103 percent higher than national average.
Latin -- 102 percent higher than national average.
Pakistani -- 97 percent higher than national average.
Massachusetts
Portuguese -- 716 percent higher than national average.
Brazilian -- 361 percent higher than national average.
Irish -- 179 percent higher than national average.
Seafood -- 90 percent higher than national average.
Middle Eastern -- 82 percent higher than national average.
Michigan
Middle Eastern -- 184 percent higher than national average.
Diners -- 47 percent higher than national average.
Hot dogs -- 43 percent higher than national average.
Pizza -- 43 percent higher than national average.
Soup -- 40 percent higher than national average.
Minnesota
Buffets -- 53 percent higher than national average.
Traditional American -- 35 percent higher than national average.
Pizza -- 31 percent higher than national average.
New American -- 21 percent higher than national average.
Gluten-free -- 18 percent higher than national average.
Mississippi
Southern -- 371 percent higher than national average.
Cajun -- 189 percent higher than national average.
Buffets -- 135 percent higher than national average.
Soul food -- 106 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 103 percent higher than national average.
Missouri
BBQ -- 65 percent higher than national average.
Soup -- 46 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 33 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 30 percent higher than national average.
Tex-Mex -- 29 percent higher than national average.
Montana
Steak -- 141 percent higher than national average.
Cafes -- 80 percent higher than national average.
Traditional American -- 70 percent higher than national average.
Diners -- 52 percent higher than national average.
Breakfast/brunch -- 34 percent higher than national averag.e
Nebraska
Steak -- 60 percent higher than national average.
Buffets -- 36 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 35 percent higher than national average.
Comfort food -- 34 percent higher than national average.
Burgers -- 30 percent higher than national average.
Nevada
Filipino - 277 percent higher than national average.
Hawaiian -- 238 percent higher than national average.
Buffets -- 156 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 84 percent higher than national average.
Vegan -- 66 percent higher than national average.
New Hampshire
Breakfast/brunch -- 95 percent higher than national average.
Irish -- 95 percent higher than national average.
Gluten-free -- 72 percent higher than national average.
Traditional American -- 67 percent higher than national average.
Diners -- 66 percent higher than national average.
New Jersey
Portuguese -- 880 percent higher than national average.
Spanish -- 266 percent higher than national average.
Kosher -- 218 percent higher than national average.
Peruvian -- 211 percent higher than national average.
Delis -- 156 percent higher than national average.
New Mexico
Mexican -- 124 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 60 percent higher than national average.
French -- 58 percent higher than national average.
Cafes -- 51 percent higher than national average.
Vegetarian -- 45 percent higher than national average.
New York
Kosher -- 414 percent higher than national average.
Halal -- 233 percent higher than national average.
Spanish -- 206 percent higher than national average.
Caribbean -- 158 percent higher than national average.
Delis -- 117 percent higher than national average.
North Carolina
Southern -- 229 percent higher than national average.
Cheesesteaks -- 207 percent higher than national average.
Hot dogs -- 80 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 47 percent higher than national average.
Soul food -- 39 percent higher than national average.
North Dakota
German -- 187 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 101 percent higher than national average.
Soup -- 68 percent higher than national average.
Buffets -- 62 percent higher than national average.
Salad -- 41 percent higher than national average.
Ohio
Soup -- 57 percent higher than national average.
Pizza -- 57 percent higher than national average.
Fast food -- 40 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 34 percent higher than national average.
Burgers -- 32 percent higher than national average.
Oklahoma
Tex-Mex -- 93 percent higher than national average.
BBQ -- 88 percent higher than national average.
Steak -- 58 percent higher than national average.
Buffets -- 51 percent higher than national average.
Fast food -- 51 percent higher than national average.
Oregon
Food stands -- 404 percent higher than national average.
Gluten-free -- 170 percent higher than national average.
Vegan -- 153 percent higher than national average.
Hawaiian -- 145 percent higher than national average.
Thai -- 127 percent higher than national average.
Pennsylvania
Cheesesteaks -- 260 percent higher than national average.
Pizza -- 60 percent higher than national average.
Italian -- 49 percent higher than national average.
Diners -- 46 percent higher than national average.
Delis -- 45 percent higher than national average.
Rhode Island
Portuguese -- 1,187 percent higher than national average.
Fish and chips -- 193 percent higher than national average.
Irish -- 141 percent higher than national average.
Spanish -- 124 percent higher than national average.
Seafood -- 95 percent higher than national average.
South Carolina
Southern -- 327 percent higher than national average.
Seafood -- 76 percent higher than national average.
Soul food -- 65 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 57 percent higher than national average.
BBQ -- 49 percent higher than national average.
South Dakota
Steak -- 143 percent higher than national average.
Buffets -- 71 percent higher than national average.
Traditional American -- 37 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 30 percent higher than national average.
Pizza -- 27 percent higher than national average.
Tennessee
Southern -- 335 percent higher than national average.
Soul food -- 105 percent higher than national average.
BBQ -- 100 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 59 percent higher than national average.
Tex-Mex -- 49 percent higher than national average.
Texas
Tex-Mex -- 174 percent higher than national average.
Cajun -- 171 percent higher than national average.
BBQ -- 89 percent higher than national average.
Mexican -- 85 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 64 percent higher than national average.
Utah
Hawaiian -- 241 percent higher than national average.
Hot dogs -- 54 percent higher than national average.
Mexican -- 50 percent higher than national average.
Comfort food -- 41 percent higher than national average.
Burgers -- 38 percent higher than national average.
Vermont
Gastropubs -- 220 percent higher than national average.
Diners -- 130 percent higher than national average.
Comfort food -- 113 percent higher than national average.
Vegan -- 92 percent higher than national average.
Delis -- 91 percent higher than national average.
Virginia
Peruvian -- 162 percent higher than national average.
Southern -- 104 percent higher than national average.
Latin -- 68 percent higher than national average.
Middle Eastern -- 68 percent higher than national average.
Pakistani -- 67 percent higher than national average.
Washington
Vietnamese -- 181 percent higher than national average.
Fish and chips -- 175 percent higher than national average.
Thai -- 125 percent higher than national average.
Korean -- 103 percent higher than national average.
Japanese -- 88 percent higher than national average.
West Virginia
Hot dogs -- 146 percent higher than national average.
Pizza -- 75 percent higher than national average.
Buffets -- 55 percent higher than national average.
Fast food -- 54 percent higher than national average.
Chicken wings -- 47 percent higher than national average.
Wisconsin
Traditional American -- 52 percent higher than national average.
Soup -- 34 percent higher than national average.
New American -- 25 percent higher than national average.
Sandwiches -- 21 percent higher than national average.
Pizza -- 20 percent higher than national average.
Wyoming
Steak -- 182 percent higher than national average.
Comfort food -- 106 percent higher than national average.
Traditional American -- 50 percent higher than national average.
New American -- 39 percent higher than national average.
Diners -- 28 percent higher than national average.
