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Small Business Saturday boosts Spokanes local economy [Video]
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Small Business Saturday boosts Spokanes local economy [Video]

SPOKANE, Wash. Small Business Saturday, founded in 2010, encourages shoppers to support small businesses over large chain corporations. In Spokane, one local business is transforming for the holiday season to drive foot traffic and promote year-round success. According to the Small Business Administration, 41% of U.S. adults plan to shop in-person at small businesses,

Avocados, tequila and other iconic Mexican products are jeopardized by Trump’s tariff threats [Video]
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Avocados, tequila and other iconic Mexican products are jeopardized by Trump’s tariff threats [Video]

Mexicans are worried that threats by Donald Trump to impose 25% tariffs could affect a wide range of iconic Mexican products and threaten entire regional economies.In western Mexico, no crop supplies an income for so many small growers as avocados. But avocado growers, pickers and packers worry that U.S. consumers, faced with 25% higher prices, may just skip the guacamole.”I think that when there is an increase in the price for any product, demand declines,” said avocado grower Enrique Espinoza. Orchards like his are the economic lifeblood in the western Mexico state of Michoacan. “It would be a tragedy if they closed down (the border) on us,” he said.Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration when he said he would impose tariffs couldn’t come at a worse time: It’s around when Mexico starts shipping crates of the green fruit north for Super Bowl Sunday, the annual peak of consumption.Jos Luis Arroyo Sandoval, a manager at an avocado packing house in Michoacan, says the economy would be affected.”Work for us could decrease because it won’t be quite so attractive to export,” Arroyo said, “because avocados would get expensive, and avocados are already expensive.”It may not just be Mexican producers who are affected; U.S. consumers may also be howling.Mexican business leader Gina Diez Barroso told a news conference Tuesday that one U.S. agriculture official told her he had never had as many complaints as when the U.S. government halted import inspections on Mexican avocados in 2022.”Never in his life had he had so much chaos in his office, because they halted Mexican avocados,” Diez Barroso said.Espinoza agrees that consumers are likely to share the pain.”The gringos need avocados, it is a good product, and I don’t think they are going to stop consuming it,” he said.Rather, the reverse effect has him worried; if Mexico retaliates with its own tariffs, as President Claudia Sheinbaum has suggested, Mexicans will face not just a drop in income, but high prices for U.S. products like corn, which is a main supply of feed for animals in Mexico.”There are more poor people here, so in some ways it is going to hit us,” Espinoza said. “The United States can pay 25% more for Mexican products, very few of us have enough money to pay 25% more for what we import from the United States.”It’s not just the guacamole; Mexican tequila producers have seen a bonanza in the U.S. market. In 2023, the U.S. imported $4.6 billion worth of tequila and $108 million worth of mezcal from Mexico.That has raised cautious concern among tequila producers, including farmers who grow agave on some of the driest, marginal soils that couldn’t support many other crops.”We are analyzing the statements by the authorities and their reactions, and in the coming days we will establish a position,” the National Tequila Industry Chamber said in a statement.And industry representatives say a drop in the consumption of tequila America’s third-most popular spirit, behind vodka and pre-mixed cocktails could affect U.S. bars, restaurants and clubs.”At the end of the day, tariffs on spirits products from our neighbors to the north and south are going to hurt U.S. consumers and lead to job losses across the U.S. hospitality industry just as these businesses continue their long recovery from the pandemic,” the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. said in a statement.The tariffs would probably plunge Mexico into an immediate recession. Mexican financial group Banco Base estimated in a report that for every 1% that Mexican exports increase in price, their volume falls by 1.33%Supposing that Americans might absorb half the impact of the tariffs and just pay higher prices for Mexican goods, they still might reduce their consumption by 12%, Banco Base estimated.”This would be reflected in a 4.4% drop in gross domestic product,” the bank wrote, adding “the decline would not just occur in 2025, but would get more serious the longer the tariffs last.”And the tariffs could affect some products that aren’t thought of as particularly Mexican at all.Mexico’s Economy Secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, said Wednesday that 88% percent of all North American pickup trucks come from Mexico, though it was unclear if he meant just parts of the trucks or their final assembly.Ebrard claimed that 25% tariffs would mean U.S. consumers might have to pay $3,000 more per pickup truck.”It is shooting yourself in the foot,” Ebrard said.

Displaced families in Lebanon who return home are faced with piles of rubble [Video]
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Displaced families in Lebanon who return home are faced with piles of rubble [Video]

During their 37 years of marriage, Mariam Kourani and her husband ran a butcher shop in southern Lebanon, started a business selling serving containers and opened a small restaurant.Video above: Biden administration brokers ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon-based militants, HezbollahAn Israeli airstrike in late September destroyed it all.Walking through the rubble of what used to be her house and restaurant in the village of Hanouiyeh, Kourani, 56, watched as her son-in-law picked up some of his young daughter’s clothes and toys from the ruins.”This was my house, my dreams and my hard work,” she said, holding back tears. She pointed to one of the serving containers she used to sell, and estimated her family’s total losses at $120,000.Kourani is among the tens of thousands of residents who have started streaming back into southern Lebanon to check on their homes after the U.S.-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect early Wednesday. Intense Israeli airstrikes over the past two months leveled entire neighborhoods in eastern and southern Lebanon, and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which are predominantly Shiite areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah has a strong base of support. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced.Like Kourani, many are returning home to find that their homes are gone.The World Bank said earlier this month that housing has been the hardest hit sector with almost 100,000 units partially or fully damaged during the 14-month war, which intensified in late September. It estimated the damage at $3.2 billion.Who will pay for the reconstruction is unclear. Iran has offered to help, but it’s under Western sanctions and its economy has suffered. Kourani said Hezbollah members have told her those who lost a house during the war will be given a place to stay until their homes are rebuilt. After spending thousands of dollars in rent for the two months the family was displaced in the village of Qarnayel in Mount Lebanon, Kourani said her priority is to fix their butcher shop across the street so they can start earning money.”We are starting from below zero,” she said.A history of lossAli Saleh lost his home in 2006, during the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. He was able to rebuild when the Gulf nation of Qatar funded the reconstruction of several areas in southern Lebanon.On Wednesday, Saleh drove to his hometown near the border with Israel, only to find that it had happened again: his two-story home was destroyed.”All the memories are gone,” he said, as he smoked a cigarette.The 59-year-old man drove back with his wife and three of his six children hoping to find a place to stay close to his hometown of Aita al-Shaab, a village that witnessed some of the most intense fighting.”It is a disaster-stricken village,” he said.In the ancient city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, 34-year-old Souad al-Outa walked around what was left of her home, shocked.She knew her neighborhood had been badly hit like many other parts of this city, a designated UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its ancient Roman ruins. She was not prepared for the devastation she saw when she went back on Thursday.A strike earlier this month killed multiple people in the street nearby, she said, including several of her husband’s relatives.”I feel like my heart has come out of its place,” she said as she looked around what used to be her children’s bedroom.”We had a beautiful life here.”Homes can be rebuiltAbout 170 kilometers (105 miles) southwest of there, in the village of Qana near the port city of Tyre, Abu Ahmad Salameh stood in what was left of several buildings that belonged to his family. He was able to pull two carpets from under the rubble.”All this damage can be rebuilt. This is our land, and we will stay here no matter what,” Salameh said. “It is painful to see the destruction. These are the homes of my parents, grandparents, daughter and my house.”He said that when the area was struck about two weeks ago, Hezbollah fighters found a safe full of jewelry and cash in the rubble of his house and returned it to his family.Back in Hanouiyeh, Kourani said the family left their home in the early afternoon on Sept. 23, the day the war intensified, and moved in with relatives a few miles away. Shortly after they got there, they received a call saying that their house had been destroyed.As the Israeli airstrikes increased, they fled north to Qarnayel, where they rented an apartment for 1,000 a month in addition to $250 for electricity and water.Once the ceasefire went into effect, she drove back home with her husband, son and her daughter’s family. They spent the night with relatives.Despite everything, Kourani said she is embarrassed to speak about her material losses at a time when thousands of people have been killed, including friends and relatives and Hezbollah fighters among them.”Israel has filled our land with blood. Our big loss is our men,” she said.___Associated Press writer Lujain Jo in Baalbek, Lebanon, contributed reporting.