Loans

Key US Air Force base closes airspace amid drone sightings [Video]
►
Categories
Small Business Funding

Key US Air Force base closes airspace amid drone sightings [Video]

Drone activity caused officials to close airspace over one of the United States most critical Air Force bases for almost four hours late Friday and early Saturday, according to a base spokesperson and a Notice to Airmen posted on a federal website.Bob Purtiman, chief of public affairs for the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said that the airspace remained restricted for approximately four hours from late Friday into early Saturday, while authorities monitored the situation, WHIO reported.The drones, referred to as small unmanned aerial systems, were being monitored by base units, Purtiman told WHIO. To date, installation leadership has determined none of the incursions impacted base residents, facilities or assets, he said.This airspace closure was first reported by The War Zone on Sunday.In a recording of the Wright-Patterson air traffic control tower during the incident, posted on YouTube by The War Zone, a controller tells an aircraft identified as MedFlight 8 to use extreme caution for heavy UAS movement on the base. UAS is an acronym for unmanned aircraft system.The controller can be heard in the audio, which the outlet said was shared by a reader, saying security forces are handling the situation and tells the flight that the bases class D airspace usually the area around an airport up to an altitude of 2,500 feet will be closed.CNN reached out to the Air Force for comment, but did not immediately hear back.The Wright-Patterson activity comes amid a string of mysterious drone sightings, primarily in the Northeast, that have been raising alarms among residents and local officials alike.Drone sightings have occurred near other military installations, including Picatinny Arsenal and Naval Weapons Station Earle in New Jersey, as well as critical infrastructure like reservoirs.Drone activity near U.S. military sites has also been seen overseas. In November, British air bases used by the U.S. Air Force reported drone incursions. Officials confirmed the incursions did not affect residents or critical infrastructure, and an investigation into their origin is ongoing.Officials have urged calm and emphasized there is no evidence suggesting the sightings pose a security threat.Wright-Patterson, about five miles outside the city of Dayton, is home to critical U.S. Air Force commands, including the Air Force Research Lab, which bills itself as looking for ways to counter technological advancements (that) bring threats to our way of life, according to a video on its website.The undated video animation shows an image of a drone approaching what looks like a remote US military outpost.Wright-Patterson is also home to Air Force Materiel Command, which conducts research, development, test and evaluation, and provides acquisition management services and logistics support necessary to keep Air Force weapon systems ready for war, the commands website says.The sprawling base also hosts the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, whose mission is to discover and characterize air, space, missile, and cyber threats, its website says, adding that it provides unique collection, exploitation, and analytic capabilities not found elsewhere.Another key base tenant is the headquarters of the 655th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group, which oversees 14 intelligence squadrons scattered across the country.The base is also home to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, a massive facility which houses some of the most important aircraft in history, including Bockscar, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.In another nod to history, Wright-Patterson was home to the 1995 peace talks that resulted in the Dayton Peace Accords between Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, which ended a three-and-half-year war in Bosnia.The 8,000-acre base is one of the largest the Air Force maintains worldwide, with more than 38,000 military, civilian and contractor employees. It is also the largest single-site employer in the state of Ohio, according to the bases website.Officials are urging anyone who observes suspicious drone activity to report it to local law enforcement or security.As drone activity has garnered significant media attention, former FBI Supervisory Special Agent Tom Adams suggested to CNN that recent sightings could be influenced by copycat behaviors due to heightened scrutiny and coverage of the issue.I think were looking at a few different things. First, I do believe that there are probably some legitimate visual drone sightings by alert residents and law enforcement in New Jersey, Adams said on Friday.Rob DAmico, the former chief of the FBI counter-drone unit, told CNN that more than 90% of reported drone sightings are likely misidentified manned aircraft or natural objects, while the surge in drone activity is creating confusion and exposing critical gaps in airspace security.What youre now seeing is people are starting to fly drones to either make more chaos or to look for their own drones, DAmico said. They have to start telling the people and other government officials what theyre actually doing, what theyre seeing the more transparency.Both the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement continue to investigate the reported sightings, striving to determine the nature of the aircraft involved.CNNs Isaac Yee contributed to this report.

Small Business Saturday boosts Spokanes local economy [Video]
►
Categories
Small Business Funding

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]
►
Categories
Small Business Funding

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.