Categories
Small Business Lifestyle

Fall foliage in New England starts early this year NBC Boston [Video]

Fall foliage is a New England staple. It’s estimated that 3.6 million tourists from across the globe visit Vermont alone for a front row seat to the beautiful colors!

But with this year’s hot and dry weather, leaf peepers may need to get a head start if they hope to see any color at all. 

Andy Finton, an ecologist with The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, said the season is starting to do some crazy things.

“A lot of these trees are early. They’re turning colors early, sometimes not as brilliant as they normally would. The red maples are not turning red right now, they’re turning brown. They’re done,” said Finton. “The leaves are saying hey we can’t hang on any longer. The trees are saying let’s call it quits for the year.”

He knows that forests are New England’s “character.” With little rain and heat stressed trees, he said the …

Watch/Read More
Categories
Small Business Lifestyle

Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to lead new 'Department of Government Efficiency' [Video]

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency" which is not, despite the name, a government agency.The acronym DOGE is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House advice and guidance and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before. He added that the move would shock government systems.It's not clear how the organization will operate. It could come under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which dictates how external groups that advise the government must operate and be accountable to the public.Federal employees are generally required to disclose their assets and entanglements to ward off any potential conflicts of interest, and to divest significant holdings relating to their work. Because Musk and Ramaswamy would not be formal federal workers, they would not face those requirements or ethical limitations.Musk posted on X: Department of Government Efficiency. The merch will be (fire emojis). Later he added: Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!Musk has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election.The president-elect has often said he would give Musk a formal role overseeing a group akin to a blue-ribbon commission that would recommend ways to slash spending and make the federal government more efficient. Musk at one point suggested he could find more than $2 trillion in savings nearly a third of total annual government spending.Trump had made clear that Musk would likely not hold any kind of full-time position, given his other commitments.I dont think I can get him full-time because hes a little bit busy sending rockets up and all the things he does, Trump said at a rally in Michigan in September. He said the waste in this country is crazy. And were going to get Elon Musk to be our cost cutter.Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump.Trump said in his statement the two will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."