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It’s Incredibly Hard to Get Dental Care in Rural America
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Two and a half hours west of the Twin Cities, where the Minnesota and Chippewa rivers meet, is the prairie village of Montevideo, Minnesota. Downtown consists of a post office, railroad tracks, a few storefronts, and a dentist’s office called Main Street Dental Care. From the outside, the clinic doesn’t look like much. But on the bitter February day I visited, inside it was buzzing with activity.

Down the hall from the full waiting room, bent over her dental chair, Brandi Tweeter had a full roster of patients. Some had traveled hundreds of miles to see her, she told me. That’s not unusual: In Minnesota, there’s about one dentist for every 1,500 people—but they’re concentrated in cities. Here in Chippewa County, the ratio is 1 in about 2,400. In a neighboring county, it’s 1 in more than 5,000.

Rural Minnesota isn’t alone—some 49 million Americans live in places where there are not enough dentists. In those areas, it’s often hard to get an appointment even if you have private insurance. But for people on Medicaid, it can be impossible: Fewer than half the nation’s dentists accept Medicaid patients. Those who don’t claim the paperwork is too complicated and the reimbursement rates are too low.

More than 1 in 3 low-income adults avoid smiling because they’re ashamed of their teeth.

The result is a public health crisis. While writing my book, Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America, I met people who slept in their cars and waited in long lines for extractions at free clinics. I met people who had pulled out their own teeth and others who had lost loved ones to dental abscesses. I met a boy dying from complications of untreated tooth decay.

I also observed how bad teeth can lock families into a cycle of poverty. “No more people behind the counter unless they have all their teeth,” Andrew Puzder, the former CEO of CKE Restaurants, told managers of Hardee’s burger shops in a memo that turned up when he was nominated to be President Donald Trump’s labor secretary. More than 1 in 3 low-income adults avoid smiling because they’re ashamed of their teeth, according to a Harris Poll survey conducted on behalf of the American Dental Association in 2015.

And untreated dental problems tax our health care system. More than a million Americans a year show up at hospital emergency rooms with nontraumatic dental problems—costing more than $1 billion annually. In Minnesota, about 400,000 preschoolers were brought to hospital emergency rooms with severe oral conditions during a recent five-year period. The visits cost $80 million, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported last year.

Which is where Brandi Tweeter comes in. She’s a dental therapist— something like a nurse practitioner for teeth. Twice as fast to train as a dental surgeon and half as expensive to employ, dental therapists handle a range of common procedures: drilling and filling teeth, placing crowns, performing some extractions. Under an innovative program in Minnesota, about 60 dental therapists fill in where care is scarce.

More than a million Americans a year show up at hospital emergency rooms with nontraumatic dental problems—costing more than $1 billion annually.

Yet the therapists remain controversial in Minnesota and beyond. The American Dental Association, which spends more than $2 million a year on lobbying, has fought them tirelessly. The ADA says it’s worried about patient safety, but John Powers, the owner of Main Street Dental Care, suggests the real reason is fear of competition. “Dental organizations say, ‘We’re concerned about our patients and their care,'” he told me. “No. You are concerned about your pocketbook.”

The nation’s first dental therapists started working in Alaskan tribal areas in 2005—and the ADA and the Alaska Dental Society soon sued (unsuccessfully) to stop them. Three years later, Ann Lynch, a freshman Minnesota state senator, introduced a bill to allow dental therapists in her state. The Minnesota Dental Association launched what the Star Tribune called “an all-out media blitz targeting the legislation,” but lawmakers passed it anyway. Since then, Maine and Vermont have passed laws allowing dental therapists, and 11 other states are considering them, as are more tribal groups.

The ADA still maintains there’s no evidence that dental therapists are helping to fix Minnesota’s shortage of care. But a 2014 review by the state’s Department of Health and Board of Dentistry indicates that more Medicaid patients receive treatment in areas surrounding clinics that employ dental therapists. The state also documented dramatically reduced waiting times.

Here’s what hasn’t decreased: business at Main Street Dental Care. Quite the opposite, in fact. When Powers hired Tweeter five years ago, he was able to open his doors to Medicaid recipients. Since then, his practice has increased from 3,000 patients to 8,000. The office’s annual revenue has more than tripled, from $600,000 to $1.9 million, and the staff has grown from 7 employees to 23 (including three more dental therapists). The clinic had to move to a bigger office. Powers is excited about the booming business, but he’s most proud of how his team has helped people on the prairie, he told me: “The effect we’ve had on their oral health in this area—and in the state, for that matter—is kind of amazing.”

Output: Two and a half hours west of the Twin Cities, where the Minnesota and Chippewa rivers meet, is the prairie village of Montevideo, Minnesota. Downtown consists of a post office, railroad tracks, a few storefronts, and a dentist’s office called Main Street Dental Care. From the outside, the clinic doesn’t look like much. But on the bitter February day I visited, inside it was buzzing with activity.


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Advertisers advised to use Nielsen to measure Facebook reach
 IAB Australia has urged advertisers to use Nielsen for measuring Facebook's reach rather than the social media's own Ad Manager tool, AdNews can reveal.

For the past week, the social media platform has come under increasing pressure to explain how its estimated reach of 15-39s has 1.7 million more people in Australia than officially exists.

The reach inflation issue has spread to the US, where market analysts and the media have questioned the discrepancy, which has been found in nine out of 12 other markets in an AdNews study.

Facebook has stood by its inflated reach estimates in responses to the media and a carefully-worded email to media buyers in this country. Its position is that its reach estimates include variables like short-term visitors and has encouraged advertisers not compare its figures with official census data.

The IAB, a peak body for internet advertising in Australia, has told AdNews that it “strongly encourages” advertisers to use independent third-party data for assessing media reach across all digital players.

“The investment in both time and money that the industry puts into the IAB endorsed digital currency via Nielsen gives the market a robust and independent measuring stick to review all media players. Publishers and platforms will have additional deep data on their audiences which can be extremely valuable, however it is often difficult to compare this to other market metrics.”

The IAB says the Nielsen figures are the cleanest digital currency to represent true reach and accounts for factors such as duplicate accounts and fabricated user information.

Experts speaking to AdNews on the condition of anonymity have said Facebook's "estimated reach" does not describe individual people and was likely to contain duplicate accounts and users lying about their age.

“I wouldn't call their numbers reach, I would call them accounts,” a digital media expert told AdNews. “It's like when people used to use cookies as reach and it got ridiculous.

“Those self-serving tools from both Google and Facebook have been built for the SME market. Getting the nuance for what is a person and an account can be difficult and they probably take it to the easiest word, which can be quite misleading.”

A media buyer has told AdNews the concern about the tool is that it could mislead marketers in planning and budget allocation on the platform, particularly for smaller companies that do not have media agency partners to scrutinise the data.

"It doesn’t matter if they are only billing us on actuals," the media buyer said. "Because of higher estimations it is perceived as a better platform based at the planning stage."

Facebook clarifies

Facebook's response to the audience inflation findings has been to distance its reach estimates from census data rather than acknowledging it has a problem.

In a email circulated to media buyers, it sought to clarify its reach estimates by saying there are “several factors” that contribute to the discrepancy before naming one potential cause.

“We look at people in a particular region at a particular time, not necessarily who lives there like the Census does. Census data also does not include non-residents or visitors, which we factor into estimates,” the email said.

Facebook says its “estimated reach” tool provides an estimate of potential overall reach and the estimated daily reach of the ad campaign. It described it as a "campaign planning tool".

“These numbers are designed to provide an idea of your campaign's potential reach. They are not meant to be an actual accounting of Facebook's active users and are not designed to match population or census estimates,” the email said.

It urged media buyers to advise clients: “we don't recommend that advertisers compare the numbers as they are not expected to match”.

Ritson's reaction

In his weekly column in The Australian, Mark Ritson said he was shocked to learn that Facebook's figures had exceeded population data and alarmed that some digital marketers were unconcerned by the discrepancy.

“The reaction of most digital marketers was one of unconcerned equanimity. Some accepted that Facebook had erred but they pointed out that it was no better or worse than other traditional media vendors who also overstate their reach,” Ritson said.

“But in my long and torrid history of looking at media data this is the first time I have come across a claim that exceeds the physical population. There are lies, media statistics and then there are Facebook audience measures.”

One of Ritson's LinkedIn posts garnered a broad range of industry views on the issue, with many critical about credibility of Facebook figures.

Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au

Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.

Output: The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia has urged marketers using Facebook to rely on Nielsen for accurate reach measurements, after it emerged Facebook appeared to have inflated its estimated reach of users in the 15-39 age group. Facebook suggested it had 1.7 million more such users than officially exist in Australia. IAB said Nielsen figures are "the cleanest digital currency to represent true reach". In an email circulated to media buyers, Facebook said estimated reach figures were "not meant to be an actual accounting of active users and are not designed to match population or census estimates".


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Caring for Your Parents? This Project Wants to Make You Feel Less Alone
 For 12 years, Priya Soni watched as her father’s health deteriorated.

Multiple doctors in the '00s were unable to diagnose his illness — which included losing motor control and the ability to speak, she said — and Soni, who was then in her 20s, found herself having to take care of him.

What made the process even more difficult was that Soni felt isolated because none of her friends were going through a similar experience.

“There was an alienating and isolating aspect to all of this, and I think as I was going through it, I didn’t always know I needed somebody,” Soni told NBC News. “It was very hard to stop and think about what [I] needed.”

Priya Soni, founder of The Caregiving Effect LLC. Courtesy of Priya Soni

Soni is now working to spread caregivers' stories and teach them how to share their experiences to ensure no one feels as alone as she did. Through "The Caregiving Effect LLC," a project she started in 2016, Soni has mentored those currently caring for loved ones and shared their stories on social media.

She also writes and speaks about caregiving and is scheduled to give a presentation at the second annual National Caregiving Conference in November.

A 2015 joint study by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP estimated that there are more than 40 million unpaid caregivers in the U.S.

“To have that many people in this country alone caregive and then for so many of us to feel alone in the experience, that says something,” Soni said.

“I had always envisioned a quilt of caregivers and their stories, but with a real intention focus to shift conversation."

Ruth Chung, associate professor of clinical education at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, said that — consistent with broader demographics — many women are getting married later, having children later, and learning that their parents are living longer, thus taking on caretaking roles.

This may cause many women to feel “sandwiched” between caregiving of their aging parents and still having young children they are responsible for, she explained, adding that sometimes women may suffer in silence without seeking help.

“Women as a whole, especially working women, then feel this kind of triple burden of their role of being parents, wives, and children, and then as their parents age, stepping into a caregiving role,” Chung told NBC News. “So it’s putting a lot of strain and burden on middle-aged women and that’s something that is becoming much more apparent and unclear, but that seems to be cutting across cultures.”

Growing up in Maryland as the eldest daughter of South Asian-American parents, Soni learned about her father’s experiences living in a village in the Punjab region where many generations of his family, particularly young women, would care for their elders.

Soni understood that education and respect for elders were of the utmost importance to her father and knew she had to honor that value system at home.

“Because of the Indian culture, one of the things we wanted to do was honor the fact that we grew up in a house and witnessed his family taking care of the elderly,” Soni said. “We knew that was important to him and we knew it was important to be able to contribute back to him.”

At one point during her father’s last years of life, Soni realized her dad needed 24-hour, seven-days-a-week care, so the family decided to hire two caregivers who spoke Hindi and understood his cultural background, a story she later recounted to Women's Day magazine.

“They spoke Hindi, they had a Tibetan background, they understood what my father needed,” Soni said.

Looking back, Soni wishes she sought more help from aging experts, social workers, and other advocates while taking care of her father.

“What I needed the most was a support group that focused on how to handle mystery illnesses when you don’t have a diagnosis or trajectory of knowing what’s going to happen around the corner,” Soni said.

Caregivers are unsung heroes, according to Dr. Zaldy Tan, medical director of the UCLA Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program, but their dedication can lead to increased stress.

Tan noted that third-generation Asian and Hispanic caregivers spent the most time looking after their charges, referencing a 2016 study released by the California Health Interview Survey.

“Asian Americans, we feel in our culture that caregiving for older family members or even younger family members is part of our responsibility as a family and that institutionalism perhaps is less acceptable culturally than in other cultures,” he said.

"I think as I was going through it, I didn’t always know I needed somebody. It was very hard to stop and think about what [I] needed.”

“Asian Americans could conceivably spend longer durations of caregiving and therefore will be subjected to greater risk of stress and strain compared to other caregivers who may be more willing to seek respite care or hiring somebody,” he added.

After the death of her father in 2015, Soni spent a year reflecting and communicating with others who had gone through similar experiences. Soni said she created the platform for these stories to live on, a way to honor the memory of those who have died and also pay respect to caregivers.

“I started to open up and have conversations with adult caregivers, people who had been through loss, people who were currently caregiving to different family members, and I asked them questions about what they have gone through, what do they need, how could I help, and what services would have helped them,” Soni said.

Ultimately, the main goal of The Caregiving Effect is to support adult caregivers who have cared or are caring for their parents.

“I had always envisioned a quilt of caregivers and their stories, but with a real intention focus to shift conversation," Soni said. "I really wanted to shift conversations [from] sitting in pain and discomfort to one that is understanding of the sources of learning and knowledge we all walk from in this experience.”

Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.

Output: For 12 years, Priya Soni watched as her father’s health deteriorated. Multiple doctors in the '00s were unable to diagnose his illness — which included losing motor control and the ability to speak, she said — and Soni, who was then in her 20s, found herself having to take care of him.


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Amazon opens anti-counterfeiting programme to third-party sellers
 Amazon is extending its anti-counterfeiting Transparency program to third-party retailers on its platform, according to three sources that sell as third-party sellers on the site.

The program was launched in March as a test for Amazon’s own products and labels. It’s now open to everyone that sells products through Marketplace, Amazon’s third-party sales platform, and some speculate that it may end up being mandatory for retailers to sign on to.

Transparency provides customers with details about where a product comes from, including manufacturing date, location and other details like materials and ingredients. Every item that has a Transparency label, a stylized blue T, has a unique code that can be scanned with the Amazon app to reveal the product information.

The way it works is roughly like a serialization or UPC code. The brand buys the codes from Amazon and puts a unique code on every unit it creates for sale on Marketplace. All the codes are serialized; Amazon will not accept items without codes. Amazon is telling sellers that don’t have codes on products right now that they have to add the codes soon or risk their products being eliminated from Amazon.

Sources say that Amazon is focusing Transparency efforts on third-party sellers that sell through its enormous Marketplace offering. Amazon takes a cut out of any retail transactions that go through Marketplace. The program is optional now and there’s no cost to use it, but sources believe Amazon will eventually charge retailers a nominal price of a few cents for a million codes; Amazon wouldn’t say.

One of the brands signing on to Transparency is Corkcicle, a maker of high-end water bottles. Eric Miller, partner at the company, which sells as a third-party seller to Amazon, said that his company has had people making knock-offs of his product, so he likes the idea of the program.

“Amazon wants to get out of the concept that they’re just a mass retailer,” said Michael Levine, vp of marketing at retail agency Photon. “The problem they’ve had in the past is legitimacy. Essentially, coming out with their own UPC code means guaranteeing authenticity.” That, said Levine, can open the door to the coveted luxury segment — a segment Amazon has been struggling to woo as luxury brands worry not just about the low-end “storefronts” Amazon could provide but also about counterfeit sellers diluting brands’ value.

Even for a company like Corkcicle that isn’t on the level of a Louis Vuitton, Transparency is nice to have, even if it’s not game-changing, Miller said. “It’s a nice comfort level.”

Elaine Kwon, founder of e-commerce consultancy Kwontified and the former vendor manager of luxury division at Amazon Fashion, said that Transparency is in line with Amazon’s focus on customer experience and trust. The brands signing onto Transparency have to do much of the legwork themselves — even to the point of making sure its authorized retail partners also don’t apply for the program, lest Amazon sees authorized resellers as counterfeiters.

Kwon said Transparency fulfills two objectives: It weeds out “bad” products but keeps Marketplace competitive on price, which ultimately gives the customer the most choice and helps Amazon. This doesn’t help brands, though, because price competitiveness among multiple sellers on Marketplace still happens, she said, which drives down prices for the seller.

Sources say that buyers who work for Amazon themselves struggle with the scale of Marketplace to the point where finding counterfeit products and stamping them out becomes a game of whack-a-mole.

Amazon declined to comment on the specific program or confirm that it’s extending it, but a spokeswoman said, “As part of our investment in brand protection, we are building powerful tools tailored to the needs of rights owners. In order to detect bad actors and potentially counterfeit products, we employ dedicated teams of software engineers, research scientists, program managers, and investigators to operate and continually refine our anti-counterfeiting program. When a business registers to sell products through Amazon’s Marketplace, Amazon’s automated systems scan information for signals that the business might be a bad actor, and Amazon blocks those bad actors during registration before they can offer any products for sale.”

Transparency is separate from Amazon’s Brand Registry program where companies can register logos and IP with Amazon and let it take down counterfeit seller accounts. It’s one big reason brands decide to sell directly to Amazon — Nike’s recent move to sign on as a so-called vendor was driven in part by the large number of counterfeit sellers of Nike on Amazon, which joining the brand registry program would help solve.

“It’s a way of them saying, ‘We’ll take a step on our side and build a program and help you track every product sold on Amazon,’” said Levine.

Output: Amazon is making its anti-counterfeiting transparency programme available for third-party retailers on its site. The transparency programme requires brands to buy unique codes which provide customers with product details. Without a code, vendors' products risk being taken down from the site. By launching unique product codes, Amazon is more able to attract luxury brands, which would otherwise worry about counterfeit sellers diluting their brand's value, said Michael Levine, VP of marketing at retail agency Photon.


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Over 50 business owners jailed for not paying new business rates
 One small business owner a week has been sent to prison after failing to pay the newly adjusted business rates bills, as the government warns sole traders to pay up or face prison.

According to new data compiled by CVS for the Press Association, 54 business owners were sent to prison for up to 90 days for nonpayment of business rates in the year to the end of March.

Whereas limited companies face liquidation if they are unable to pay the controversial new rates, sole traders and self-employed businesses face a “disproportionate financial and legal burden” and prison for not keeping up with payments.

Businesses across the UK have been challenging the rates revaluations, which continue to cripple thousands.

The government pledged £300 million to a relief fund to help those businesses most affected, but just two out of nearly 100 local councils have paid out so far amid increasing delays and lack of direction from the government.

For the hundreds of companies challenging their revaluated business rates bill, bills must still be paid while a decision is made on their appeal.

“It is the only tax not related to the ability to pay, so it places both a disproportionate financial and legal burden on sole traders.” CVS chief executive Mark Rigby said.

The disproportionate challenges faced by limited companies and sole traders was thrown into the spotlight earlier this year with the collapse of fashion retailer Jaeger.

Roughly £2 million was owed in relation to business rates bills to 39 different councils and around 2p in the pound was returned to councils as the company fell into liquidation.

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Output: Some 54 business owners were sent to prison for up to 90 days for failing to pay business rates in the year to the end of March. While limited companies face liquidation if they cannot pay business rates, sole traders and self-employed businesses face a "disproportionate financial and legal burden" and also prison for failing to pay the new revalued business rates. Although the government has pledged £300m ($396m) to help businesses most affected by the rate changes, just two out of nearly 100 local councils have paid out so far.


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ECB shoots down Estonia's national cryptocurrency plan
 Bitcoin, the original stateless cryptocurrency, has often been tolerated and sometimes embraced by governments, central banks, and other key institutions around the world. But there is a limit to some officials’ acceptance of cryptoassets.

The president of the European Central Bank yesterday rejected the idea that Estonia, which is part of the euro zone, could issue and manage its own state-backed cryptocurrency. The idea is still theoretical, but ECB president Mario Draghi shot it down anyway when asked about it at a press conference: “No member state can introduce its own currency; the currency of the euro zone is the euro.”

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An Estonian cryptocurrency has been mooted as part on the country’s e-Residency program that provides a digital identity to foreign entrepreneurs. Kaspar Korjus, managing director at e-Residency, floated the idea of issuing ”estcoins” that allow people to invest in the country. The cryptocurrency would be available through its its e-residency program via an initial coin offering, which takes some of the principles of bitcoin and blends them with crowdfunding. Proceeds could go into a type of public-private partnership.

Last week, China’s central bank said fundraising through digital tokens—that is, initial coin offerings—was illegal, a move that sent shockwaves through the burgeoning token markets.

Meanwhile the euro has been on a tear lately, rallying against fellow old-school fiat currencies of just about every major trading partner amid the region’s economic recovery. The common currency has gained nearly 15% against the dollar so far this year. Over that same period against the greenback, bitcoin is up nearly 400%.

Output: Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, has refused to allow European Union member Estonia to develop its own digital currency, saying: "No member state can introduce its own currency; the currency of the euro zone is the euro." Kaspar Korjus, managing director of Estonia's e-Residency programme, which offers a digital identity to foreign entrepreneurs, had proposed issuing "estcoin" as part of an initial coin offering, with funds raised put into a public-private partnership.


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Russia develops legal frameworks for cryptocurrencies
 Russia is developing a legal framework that would regulate the purchase of cryptocurrencies, Russia’s finance minister says, adding that the government wants to legitimize cryptocurrencies and wind down the black market.

Speaking at the II Moscow Financial Forum, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov reassured Russian fans of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that the government has no intention of outlawing cryptocurrencies.

“The state understands indeed that crypto-currencies are real. There is no sense in banning them, there is a need to regulate them,” the minister said.

Instead, the Russian financial authorities are now working to bring operations with cryptocurrencies into compliance with Russian law. The legislation, to be ready by the end of the year, envisions registration of would-be buyers and a clear definition of buying procedures and rules of circulation.

Explaining the need for tighter regulation, Siluanov pointed out that those investing in virtual money are subject to greater risks due to the lack of external regulation.

“We must make an organized market out of the black market,” he said.

READ MORE: ‘US wanted him for his intellect’ – wife of Russian arrested for alleged Bitcoin fraud to RT

While not disclosing details of the proposed law, Siluanov said the ministry’s goal is to make the purchase of cryptocurrencies covered by law to the same degree as buying treasury bonds and other securities.

Earlier it was reported that Russia is mulling prohibiting the mining of cryptocurrencies in apartments. The procedure is deemed unsafe, as substantial increases in power consumption may result in fire.

‘Bitcoin plunges over news of looming exchanges shutdown in China’

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports emerging on Friday that China’s financial regulator plans to close major Bitcoin exchanges caused Bitcoin to fall. The reports were spread by Chinese financial publication Caixin, citing sources within the country’s cross regulators committee, but remain unconfirmed.

Speculation over a crackdown on cryptocurrencies in China is rife due to a recent decision by The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to outlaw the practice of raising funds through ‘initial coin offerings’ (ICOs).

ICO fundraising has experienced a surge in popularity in China, with 65 IOCs raising a total of 2.62 billion yuan ($394.6 million) from over 100,000 individuals since the beginning of the year.

Pursuant to the PBOC decision, individuals who have already completed fundraising should make arrangements to return the money.

Output: Russia is aiming to introduce a legal framework that regulates the purchase of cryptocurrencies by the end of the year, the Russian finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has said. While the Russian government does not intend to outlaw cryptocurrencies, the legislation would require would-be buyers to register before trading virtual currencies. Additionally, the finance ministry plans to issue clear definitions of buying procedures and rules of circulation. Through the regulation, the ministry intends to make the purchase of cryptocurrencies similar to buying treasury bonds and other securities.


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Commercial carrier insurtech start-up DataCubes raises $2.5m
 DataCubes, a Chicago, IL-based data science platform for the commercial insurance industry, completed a $2.5m Series A funding round.

The round was led by Seyen Capital and MK Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to extend platform capabilities to support additional lines of business and scale sales and marketing efforts.

Led by Kuldeep Malik, CEO and co-founder, and Harish Neelamana, Chief Product Officer, DataCubes provides a data science platform that leverages machine learning and AI to analyze sources for insights, like unstructured text and images, to enables carriers to accurately quote commercial insurance policies by asking customers a few questions. Specifically, the company’s D3 platform eliminates paperwork and automates underwriting with machine learning and AI, provides a holistic view of risks by analyzing a variety of internal and external data, and prioritizes commercial insurance applications by using external data to score risks.

FinSMEs

08/09/2017

Output: Chicago-based start-up DataCubes has raised $2.5m in a series A funding round led by Seyen Capital and MK Capital. DataCubes has developed a platform aimed at the commercial insurance industry that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to accurately quote commercial insurance policies for customers, removing paperwork and automating underwriting. The new funds will be used to expand sales and marketing, and extend the platform to include additional lines of business.


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Redrow Steve Morgan makes $1m donation to Hurricane Irma appeal
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North Wales developer Steve Morgan has donated one million US Dollars to the Barbuda Relief Fund after the island was devastated by Hurricane Irma.

The deadly hurricane has tragically claimed a number of lives and left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean island of Barbuda.

Irma was a category five hurricane - the highest level possible - and it is understood that over 60% of Barbuda’s people are now homeless as a result.

Mr Morgan, who was raised in Rhyl and went to school in Colwyn Bay, has had a home on the island of Antigua for many years and today called on the international community, and those with the available means, to come to the island's assistance as a matter of urgency.

“My heart goes out to everyone affected by Hurricane Irma,” said the founder and Chairman of Deeside based Redrow plc.

“I've been visiting the island for many years and my family and I consider Antigua as a second home.

"We have all seen the truly horrendous pictures and footage of the damage caused by the hurricane and cannot begin to imagine what it is like for those involved.

“So many people have been affected and now face such a long and hard struggle to return to some kind of normality.

"The devastation on the ground cannot be overstated – we simply cannot stand by and watch the people of Barbuda suffer and I just felt like I had to do something to try to help.,

"I would also repeat the calls already made for the international community, and others with the available means, to come together and do whatever they can to help all those affected who are in such desperate need following the devastating hurricane.”

Steve Morgan has made the donation of one million US dollars via his charity - the Steve Morgan Foundation - which he formed in 2001.

Mr Morgan is worth £831m - the sixth richest man in Wales. He would be a billionaire but last year gifted more than 11% of his Redrow housebuilding company shares to his charitable foundation.

Output: Steve Morgan, the founder and chairman of housebuilder Redrow Homes, has donated $1m to the Barbuda Relief Fund. The fund will help rebuild the island after category five hurricane Irma left around 60% of its population homeless. Morgan also called on the international community to contribute to help those affected by the hurricane.


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First-time buyers on the rise in California, supply still waning
 Josh and Kayleigh Hyink, former San Clemente residents, pose in front of the new home they recently purchased in the Riverside County community of Murrieta.

Newly married and in their mid-20s, San Clemente residents Josh and Kayleigh Hyink were ready for the next step in their “master plan.”

So the couple ditched their $1,644 one-bedroom apartment in Orange County and this spring purchased a new $430,000 house in the Riverside County city of Murrieta, becoming homeowners for the first time.

For the record: For the record: This article incorrectly describes a development in Rancho Mission Viejo as the Norwalk Neighborhoods. In fact, the project is known as the NorthWalk Neighborhoods.

Even though the move meant that Josh’s commute to his Huntington Beach job ballooned to 75 miles, the couple said it was worth it to get a large house — something they couldn’t afford closer in. The median home price in Riverside County was $365,000 in July, compared with $690,000 in Orange County, according to CoreLogic.

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“We wanted to get out of renting,” Josh said. “We wanted to move toward starting a family.”

The rate of first-time home buyers remains low historically, but eight years into the economic recovery, it is finally picking up, as young Americans such as the Hyinks grow more comfortable in their careers and reach an age when people tend to put down roots.

Nationally, first-time home buyers purchased 35% of previously owned houses and condos sold in the 12 months that ended in June 2016 — the latest data available — up from a near-record low of 32% in the previous 12-month period.

Still, that rate is well below the historical average of 40% over the last several decades, reflecting continuing obstacles, such as heavy personal debt loads and high home prices, that are preventing more young people from buying homes.

In California, the uptick is slightly more muted, given an affordability crisis that prompted Bankrate.com to label the state the toughest for first-time buyers.

In this year’s second quarter, 31.7% of houses and condos in California were purchased by first-time buyers, according to a California Assn. of Realtors survey. That’s up from 29.2% a year earlier.

But even here, developers say they are ramping up construction to cater to millennials with good jobs, who are increasingly fleeing rising rents for a locked-down mortgage payment.

“They are finally ready to buy,” Skylar Olsen, a senior economist with real estate firm Zillow, said of millennials.

Josh and Kayleigh Hyink stand in the kitchen of their new home in Murrieta. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Given the high cost of housing in urban and coastal areas, many are choosing a single-family house inland.

The Hyinks said that near the coast they couldn’t afford the large house they wanted for their dog and future children. In Murrieta, they have a brand-new, three-bedroom house with a three-car garage. As an added plus, they are near Temecula, where they both grew up.

“It was cool out there for a while,” Kayleigh, a 26-year-old teacher, said of Orange County. “But we’d never have a yard.”

Developers are rushing to fill demand from such young adults.

In San Bernardino and Riverside counties, builders pulled permits for 9,269 new homes, most of which were houses, in the first seven months of this year, up 58% from a year earlier, according to data from the Census Bureau.

In more expensive Los Angeles and Orange counties, permits were down a combined 4%, a drop that came entirely from multifamily construction, which is typically built in expensive urban areas and faces more pushback from existing residents.

“They are all shifting their business a little more to first-time buyers, whether along the coast or inland,” John Burns, a well-known national real estate consultant, said of California builders. “That is where the demand is.”

KB Home, a national home builder based in Los Angeles, is selling homes in 27 developments in the Inland Empire, compared with 18 a year earlier.

Jeff Mezger, the company’s chief executive, said KB Home wants to build near the coast, but it’s increasingly difficult to acquire lots there as prices have risen in the largely built-out area. Constructing homes farther out is easier, and homes are selling fast to millennial buyers, as the housing market goes through a familiar cycle.

“Demand always moves inland as the economy gets better, because people want to be a homeowner and … they get priced out,” Mezger said.

In Lake Elsinore, Pardee Homes last year started offering single-family houses below the Riverside County median in its new Viewpoint neighborhood in the master-planned Canyon Hills, with three-bedroom homes in the low $300,000s. The price was possible because of low land costs there and a denser-than-typical layout that put homes in a semi-circle surrounding a community courtyard.

Linda Mamet, vice president of corporate marketing at Pardee’s parent company, TRI Pointe, said the majority of buyers at the small 75-home project were purchasing a house for the first time. And with prices low, only three homes remain.

“It was a very fast-selling community,” she said.

Construction is under way in the Murrieta neighborhood where Josh and Kayleigh Hyink live. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

Even some coastal developers are trying to offer houses at a price millennials can afford, eager to cater to a demographic that now surpasses baby boomers in sheer size and number of home sales nationwide.

In south Orange County, new neighborhoods in the master-planned Rancho Mission Viejo community just east of San Juan Capistrano are being designed specifically with millennials in mind. Most homes in the Norwalk Neighborhoods there are starting from the low $300,000s to $700,000s.

The homes will have a contemporary feel and residents can watch their children scamper in a designated play area, hop on a zip line or get a drink at an outdoor lounge.

Most important are the prices, which are kept on the relatively affordable end by increasing density, even for the single-family homes.

“It really all begins with getting attainable pricing,” said Paul Johnson, senior vice president of community development with the Rancho Mission Viejo company, the developer of the 14,000-home master-planned community.

The developer decided to build neighborhoods designed for young home buyers about three years ago. It wanted to get ahead of what it predicted would be a wave of millennials looking for suburban homes.

The decision ran counter to the views of many pundits who predicted millennials, compared with previous generations, would forgo homeownership to rent in big cities, where developers are building apartment and condo towers in places such as downtown Los Angeles and Seattle.

Many millennials are indeed staying in their apartments, and the national homeownership rate for those under 35 is still nearly 7 percentage points less than it was a decade ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s partly because high student loan and rent payments make saving for a down payment difficult.

Dowell Myers, a demographic expert at USC, puts most of the blame on high home prices for turning what should be a flood of young home buyers into more of a trickle.

“There is an uptick,” he said. “[But] demand is being smothered by supply constraints.”

In the third quarter, 33.1% of California home buyers were born between 1980 and 1999, compared with 30.5% a year earlier, according to Ellie Mae, a company that processes mortgage applications for lenders.

Leslie Appleton-Young, the chief economist with the California Assn. of Realtors, agrees with Myers, though she said she thinks the share of first-time buyers in California will continue to rise modestly going forward as millennials age.

“I don’t think there can be a surge because affordability is so challenging,” Appleton-Young said.

Those who do buy near the coast often need to come from a wealthy family or have a high income themselves.

Rachel Dao, 30, is among those who were ready to settle down in Los Angeles and had the cash to do so after starting her own architecture firm last year. In May, she purchased a home in a gentrifying neighborhood northeast of downtown Los Angeles for more than $700,000.

“I had been on a big project and just got paid,” Dao said. “It went straight to the down payment.”

Others are getting help from parents or are cashing out stock options, particularly on the Westside of Los Angeles with its burgeoning tech community.

“I have a lot of tech clients that are getting IPO money,” said Cody Coffman, a Redfin real estate agent on the Westside, who said more and more of his clients are buying their first home.

For others, the search is tougher, even if they have good jobs.

Nate Hennagin and his wife, Rachel, moved to Los Angeles from Massachusetts this year and quickly set out to become homeowners.

The 29-year-olds even rented a temporary Airbnb, instead of leasing an apartment, because they believed that interest rates and home prices would only rise and they didn’t want to waste any time.

But their options to stay near work are limited, even though he is a labor attorney and she is a recruiter for a major television network.

They recently made a $610,000 offer on a $600,000 house in Cypress Park, but lost out. Someone else was willing to pay $150,000 over asking. They’ve since expanded their search to condos.

If they don’t find a place soon, Nate said, they’ll rent, because he and his wife don’t want to move somewhere that would mean a smaller down payment but require grueling commutes to their jobs in the Miracle Mile and Burbank.

“We are sort of hitting a wall,” he said. “We don’t have those savings set aside for the down payment. We don’t have parents who can give us a $20,000 loan.”

andrew.khouri@latimes.com

Twitter: @khouriandrew

Output: The number of people getting a foot on the Californian property ladder is slowly starting to rise, according to a survey by the California Association of Realtors. 31.7% of properties sold in the state during Q2 2017 were bought by first-time buyers, compared to 29.2% the previous year. Developers are racing to meet demand, with builders' permits for new homes up 58% in the first seven months of 2017 to 9,269, but heavy personal debt loads and high home prices are still preventing many US first-time buyers from finding a home.


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San Leon Oisin Fanning's pay five times 2016 company turnover
 San Leon energy boss Oisin Fanning's pay package was valued at five times the company's turnover last year, according to its newly released-annual report. The report also shows that San Leon's auditors have cast doubt on the oil and gas explorer's future.

Fanning's remuneration package for last year was valued at €1.7m, including salary, bonus and share awards, with the company posting revenue of €342,000.

Last year, his package outstripped that of Dalata chief Pat McCann and would have put him among the top 10 earners if the company were part of the ISEQ20.

The company's 2016 accounts were published later than stock market rules in London allowed, resulting in a suspension of trading.

In this year's annual report, auditors KPMG stated that San Leon's directors had acknowledged the company would need further funding in the next 12 months.

It is awaiting payments from its stake in a Nigerian oil field - a deal made last year, which was described by the company as transformational. The project operator has run into difficulties making the payments.

KPMG said there were "material uncertainties, which may cast doubt" over San Leon's ability to continue as a going concern.

Output: The boss of beleaguered Irish energy firm San Leon, Oisin Fanning, earned €1.7m ($2m) last year in salary, bonus and share awards, five times the company's €342,000 turnover, according to its annual report. San Leon's shares were suspended after it published its 2016 accounts later than stock market rules permitted and its directors have acknowledged the company would need further funding, according to its auditors, KPMG. The oil and gas exploration company is also awaiting payments from its stake in a Nigerian oil field.


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Textile separation breakthrough may bring full recycling closer
 HONG KONG – A significant breakthrough has been announced by the H&M Foundation and Hong Kong researchers in a four-year project to chemically recycle polyester and cotton blended textiles into new polyester fabrics and yarns without any quality loss.

The joint-partners say this new fibre-to-fibre recycling process – developed as part of a €30M funded project – is another major step towards closed-loop textile processing.

Output: A new chemical process enabling the separation of blended polyester and cotton textiles for recycling into new fabrics and yarns has been described as groundbreaking by its developers at the H&M Foundation and The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel. The process, which researchers claim doesn't reduce fabric quality, is being seen as a significant step towards “closed-loop” processing, in which only recycled materials are used. The process uses heat, water and a small amount of a “biodegradable green chemical” to separate fabric blends in a system that is cost-effective and causes no secondary pollution, researchers say.


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Textile separation breakthrough may bring full recycling closer
 “For too long the fashion industry has not been able to properly recycle its products, since there’s no commercially viable separation, sorting, and recycling technology available for the most popular materials such as cotton and polyester blends,” says Erik Bang, Innovation Lead at H&M Foundation. “This very encouraging finding has the potential to change that. We are very excited to develop this technology and scale it beyond the laboratory, which will benefit the global environment, people and communities.”

The aim of the Recycling Revolution program is to find at least one ready technology to recycle clothes made from blend textiles, within the four-year project period.

One year into the partnership, HKRITA together with Ehime University and Shinshu University in Japan, successfully developed a hydrothermal process to fully separate and recycle cotton and polyester blends. The recovered polyester material can be reused directly, without any quality loss.

The hydrothermal process uses only:

heat

water

pressure

biodegradable green chemical

This fibre-to-fibre recycling method is cost effective, and there’s no secondary pollution to the environment, ensuring the life of the recycled material is prolonged in a sustainable way. The technology will be licensed widely to ensure broad market access and maximum impact.

“By being able to upcycle used textiles into new high value textiles, we no longer need to solely rely on virgin materials to dress a growing world population.” Edwin Keh, CEO HKRITA

The H&M Foundation initiated the partnership with HKRITA in September 2016. It is backed by an estimated 5.8 million euros of funding, with HKRITA conducting the research and work to commercialise the outcomes. The Innovation and Technology Fund of the Hong Kong SAR Government also provides additional substantial funding and support. The total project investment is estimated to around 30 million euros during the four-year collaboration (2016-2020), which makes it one of the biggest and most comprehensive efforts ever for textile recycling.

The collaboration is part of H&M Foundation’s commitment within its focus area Planet, which initiatives all have the aim to safeguard not only the planet but also the living conditions for people and communities around the world.

H&M Foundation is a non-profit global foundation, privately funded by the Stefan Persson family, founders and main owners of H&M group. Its mission is to drive long lasting positive change and improve living conditions by investing in people, communities and innovative ideas. Through partnerships with organizations around the globe, the H&M Foundation drives change within four focus areas; Education, Water, Equality and Planet. In addition to this, the Foundation can also provide emergency relief. Since 2013, the Stefan Persson family has donated 1.3 billion Swedish krona ($177 million/€144 million) to the Foundation. Learn more at hmfoundation.com.

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel was established in 2006 and is a publicly funded applied research center. It is one of five applied research centers sponsored by the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. HKRITA engages in applied mid- and down-stream research to support the textile and apparel industries, to drive sustainable improvements, and to drive improvements for society.

The Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF), administered by the Innovation and Technology Commission, aims to increase the added value, productivity and competitiveness of our economic activities. The Government hopes that, through the ITF, Hong Kong companies could be encouraged and assisted to upgrade their technological level and introduce innovative ideas to their businesses.

Output: A new chemical process enabling the separation of blended polyester and cotton textiles for recycling into new fabrics and yarns has been described as groundbreaking by its developers at the H&M Foundation and The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel. The process, which researchers claim doesn't reduce fabric quality, is being seen as a significant step towards “closed-loop” processing, in which only recycled materials are used. The process uses heat, water and a small amount of a “biodegradable green chemical” to separate fabric blends in a system that is cost-effective and causes no secondary pollution, researchers say.


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Wal-Mart pledges $30m in hurricane relief
 Palm Bay officer Dustin Terkoski walks over debris from a two-story home at Palm Point Subdivision in Brevard County after a tornado touched down on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017.

Wal-Mart on Sunday promised another round of donations to help those people impacted by hurricanes in the U.S. so far this year.

The big-box retailer has said it will match customer donations, two-to-one, with cash and product donations of up to $10 million. The latest announcement brings the total committed by Wal-Mart toward hurricane relief efforts in 2017 to $30 million.

In finding a way to use these funds, Wal-Mart has launched a new campaign with the American Red Cross to assist with hurricane relief more broadly.

During the run of this campaign, customers can donate to the American Red Cross within Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs stores, or online. For every $1 given, Wal-Mart will contribute $2, or product of equal value, the company said. Donations will be accepted through Sept. 16.

In trying to service those communities that need food and water most, Wal-Mart has said it's working to "quickly" reopen affected stores in the wake of Hurricane Irma in Florida.

So far, the Arkansas-based retailer has shipped more than 1,700 truckloads of supplies to those in need.

Notably, Wal-Mart has 8 percent of its brick-and-mortar fleet in Florida, or 375 facilities. Costco has 23 stores in the state, while smaller rival Target operates 122 locations there, according to recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On its website, Wal-Mart has an updated list of closed facilities in Florida and also those in Georgia and South Carolina. A map, last updated Sunday evening, showed one Wal-Mart store opened in Jacksonville, Florida, and five locations open in the utmost Northwest region of the state.

Target has a similar running list online of store closures, with a slew of Georgia and South Carolina locations impacted, as well.

Later Monday morning, Target announced its pledge of $1 million in cash and in-kind donations to support communities impacted by Hurricane Irma. Home Depot also raised its commitment to $2 million for hurricane aid this season.

It's been estimated that the potential economic impact from lost retail sales in the "consumer/retail" sector from Hurricane Irma is expected — in total — to be $1.45 billion, according to weather analytics firm Planalytics.

Output: Wal-Mart has announced that it will match customer donations of money and products for US hurricane relief two-to-one, up to $10m, bringing the company’s total efforts in this field in 2017 to $30m.  Wal-Mart has also launched a campaign in association with the American Red Cross in order to use these funds. Target has pledged $1m in cash and in-kind donations to assist communities affected by Hurricane Irma. Home Depot has committed $2m to hurricane aid.


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Proximity to fast food outlets leads to weight gain in children
 Children who live near fast food outlets are more likely to gain weight compared with those living farther away, new research suggests.

Researchers from the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) tracked the weight of more than 1,500 state primary school pupils aged four to 11.

The study found children living closer to fast food outlets were more likely to gain a significant amount of weight between the first and last year of primary school.

The study, which will be published in the Journal of Public Health, claims it is the first to show a link between accessibility to fast food outlets and weight gain over time.

The study’s lead researcher, Matthew Pearce, said the findings raise important questions about the role of the local food environment and its influence on the diet of young children.

Pearce, a former UWE Bristol public health student now working for the NHS, said: “We know from national data that the number of children classified as obese doubles between the first and last year of primary school. Understanding the reasons for this is important to protect the future health of children.

“Obesity is driven by many complex factors. Our study adds to existing evidence that the neighbourhood environment plays an important role in the development of obesity.”

Researchers calculated a “fast food accessibility score” for each child in the study by looking at how many fast food outlets were within about half a mile of their home.

The study also found a higher density of fast food outlets within poorer neighbourhoods.

This echoes data recently released by Cambridge University’s Centre for Diet and Activity Research, which found that there are now 56,638 takeaways in England – more than a quarter of all the country’s food outlets – with some of the heaviest concentrations of fast food found in England’s poorest and most deprived neighbourhoods.

Caroline Cerny, of the Obesity Health Alliance, told the Guardian when the figures were released that the environment can affect levels of obesity. She said: “Despite the health impact of the obesity epidemic being well known, it is shocking that the number of fast food takeaways is increasing.

“Whether it’s the marketing of junk food on billboards and TV, or the proximity of junk food outlets to schools, we know our environment has a huge impact on levels of overweightness and obesity.”

Pearce agrees and is calling for more to be done to help people lead healthier lives.

He said: “While ultimately it is down to individuals on how they choose to live, it is widely accepted that we live in environments that make managing our weight increasingly difficult.

“We therefore need national and local policymakers to take decisions that support more favourable conditions that enable people to eat healthier and become more physically active.”

Output: Children living near fast food outlets are more likely to gain weight, according to research by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). The study, which analysed the weight of over 1,500 primary school children aged between four and 11, found that those living closer to fast food outlets were more likely to gain substantial amounts of weight between the first and last years of primary school. The study, which claims to be the first to demonstrate a link between accessibility to such outlets and weight gain, also identified higher densities of fast food restaurants in poorer areas.


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UN recognises EcoBioClean technology for oil spill clean-ups
 Janet Angel, CEO of JACOR LLC, has been selected to present a best practices case study discussing the scientific and ecological value of EcoBioClean® technology before the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on 14 September in Berlin.

This patented technology could be a safer and less costly way to treat oil spills. The UNEP workshop is intended to advance entrepreneurship and start-up initiatives for sustainable chemistry. Participants will include Nobel laureates and other leaders from the environmental and scientific community.

Angel set about developing the EcoBioClean® technology shortly after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Her cost-effective, comprehensive green chemistry application reduces a crude oil slick in salt or fresh water to tiny particles. It continues to biodegrade and transform those substances into beneficial materials suitable for aquatic or ground life with total remediation occurring in as little as seven days. The process is analogous to the way micro-organisms break down organic waste into the chemical energy and nutrients needed for cellular maintenance and growth.

Spill cleanup is costly. In 2010, BP spilt over 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf and spent over US$60 billion in cleanup costs. Treatment of the BP spill via EcoBioClean® would have cost around US$1.02 billion, approximately one-sixtieth of the cost.

Output: A company that has developed a technology to clean up oil spills that mimics the way micro-organisms break down organic waste has been invited to a United Nations Environment Programme conference. Janet Angel, the CEO of Jacor, developed EcoBioClean, a cost-effective green chemistry application, after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill, during which more than 200 million gallons of crude oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, costing more than $60bn to clean up. She will address the gathering about the scientific and ecological value of EcoBioClean technology.


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Nicotine e-cigarettes linked to heart disease and stroke
 E-cigarettes containing nicotine could increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes, researchers have found.

A study discovered that vaping devices containing the stimulant could cause a stiffening of the arteries, as well as an increased heart rate and blood pressure.

Swedish scientists recruited 15 healthy volunteers to take part in the experiment, none of whom had used e-cigarettes before.

The tests found in the 30 minutes after smoking the e-cigarettes containing nicotine, there was a significant increase in blood pressure, heart rate and arterial stiffness.

There was no such effect in the volunteers who smoked the e-cigarettes without nicotine.

Dr Magnus Lundback of the Karolinska Institute, a medical university in Stockholm, said: “The number of e-cigarette users has increased dramatically in the last few years. E-cigarettes are regarded by the general public as almost harmless.

“The industry markets their product as a way to reduce harm and to help people to stop smoking tobacco cigarettes. However, the safety of e-cigarettes is debated, and a growing body of evidence is suggesting several adverse health effects.

“The results are preliminary, but in this study we found there was a significant increase in heart rate and blood pressure in the volunteers who were exposed to e-cigarettes containing nicotine. Arterial stiffness increased around three-fold in those who were exposed to nicotine-containing e-cigarettes compared with the nicotine-free group.”

While the effects seen in the tests were temporary, Lundback said that chronic exposure to e-cigarettes with nicotine could have permanent effects.

Output: E-cigarettes containing nicotine could raise the risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a study by Swedish scientists. The research, based on a sample of 15 healthy volunteers, discovered that use of the devices could cause arteries to stiffen as well blood pressure and heart rates to rise. Although such effects were temporary, the researchers believe that chronic exposure to the nicotine-containing devices could have permanent results. No such effects were identified in volunteers who smoked e-cigarettes without nicotine.


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BRIC workers for European textile industry earn half living wage
 SURREY – Researchers at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES) claim that Western European textile supply chain workers in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) are earning less than half of the ‘living wage’. CES says the study shows that while globalisation has made the Western European textile supply chain fairer, more transparent with higher levels of employment, income for workers in BRIC countries are still far below the ‘living wage’.

Output: Workers in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries employed in the supply chain for the western European textile industry are earning under half the living wage, according to research by the University of Surrey. Using a Social Life Cycle Assessment model, which considers the entire lifecycle of a product, the researchers studied living costs in BRIC economies to calculate the cost of a “decent life”.  The study which, unlike previous analyses included social security and income tax contributions, found that, on average, the workers would need a 35% wage increase to achieve a "decent standard of living".


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Temperature sensors improve autonomous vehicle hazard alerts
 There are many striking differences between a fence post and a human being, but one may prove particularly useful to robotic vehicles: temperature.

At least that's what the established thermal imaging firm FLIR and the Israeli startup Adasky think. Both companies are building new thermal sensors for use in autonomous cars, and they believe that the extra data could be used to spot hazards in adverse conditions. Humans and animals on or near the road, in particular, create far more heat than their surroundings.

Some high-end automakers, including Porsche, BMW, and Audi, have been fitting vehicles with thermal imaging sensors from FLIR for several years. The vehicles use them to alert a driver to the presence of animals or people on the road at night, which may not show up within reach of the car's headlights. Those sensors offer an image 320 pixels wide by 240 high.

Now, both FLIR and Adasky hope to achieve a similar result in autonomous cars using new sensors that they're both building.

Adasky today announced a new far-infrared sensor, called Viper, that offers better resolution (640 pixels by 480) at refresh rates of 60 frames per second and can detect temperature differences as small as 0.05 °C. Adasky's Dror Meiri tells MIT Technology Review that such sensitivity allows the device not just to spot something like an elk on the road, but also to easily discern things like black ice on the surface of a highway. He says the device should be in mass production by 2020.

The video above shows Adasky's sensor in use on a country road. On the left is a visible-light camera, on the right its thermal sensor. Cyclists, pedestrians, and animals certainly show up far more sharply on the right. And the sharp contrast with surroundings would make it easier for a car to approach those living hazards with caution in a way that lidar, which provides only ranging information, may not.

FLIR is also developing a VGA device for use specifically in self-driving cars. Paul Clayton, director of automotive at FLIR, says that sample units of the sensors are being shipped to some manufacturers for testing this year and that mass-produced sensors could cost "a couple of hundred bucks."

If you're wondering why another sensor may be required in a driverless car, both companies point to an important, if uninspiring word: redundancy. "It's an augment, a somewhat redundant sensor that helps classify in bad lighting conditions or weather," explains Clayton. We've explained in the past that multiple sensors can allow autonomous cars to make better sense of their surroundings, and the sharp contrast of thermal imaging may enable, say, a glimpse of a human to provide extra context that helps avert a dangerous incident.

Even so, an extra sensor does provide another data stream to process, and because thermal imaging is less widely used on the roads than visible-light cameras and even lidar, the machine-learning systems that discern details from footage will have to catch up. Both firms seem to understand that: Adasky has built its own AI to process data for its customers, and FLIR is putting together a thermal image database that clients can use to train their own neural networks.

Adoption of thermal imaging in autonomous vehicles is likely to come down to budget. Some manufacturers may balk at the expense of yet another sensor, but until cheap lidar sensors offer the quality that automakers might like, the devices could add a useful layer of safety.

Output: Tech companies are developing thermal imaging sensors for autonomous vehicles to improve their ability to detect live obstacles in poor visibility conditions. American manufacturer FLIR and Israeli start-up Adasky are amongst those developing the temperature-detecting sensors, which they claim can help spot hazards such as humans and animals on or near the road. A number of high-end motor companies including Porsche, BMW and Audi have been fitting FLIR thermal imaging sensors to their vehicles for several years to alert drivers to potential threats. Adasky's new infra-red Viper sensor can also spot hazards such as black ice on the road.


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China bans imports of nearly 50 types European soft cheese
 Soft European cheese has fallen on hard times in China. Customs officials have banned a host of soft, mould-ripened cheese for containing “too much bacteria”, with authorities reportedly alarmed the mould contained colonies of bacteria that had not been officially approved.

The ban mainly affects French and Italian cheese, including brie, camembert, gorgonzola and roquefort, as well as the English delicacy stilton.

Sinodis, a distributor of foreign-based cheeses in Shanghai, sent a letter to customers announcing “cheese products containing certain moulds cannot temporarily be imported in China”. The company has stopped importing a laundry list of nearly 50 kinds of cheese since 23 August. The ban started in July in some cities, but was expanded nationwide this week.

“There is no good reason for the ban, because China considers the same cheese safe if produced in China,” William Fingleton, a spokesman for the delegation of the European Union to China, said in an email. “This effectively means that China is banning famous and traditional European cheeses that have been safely imported and consumed in China for decades. The entire Chinese market for soft cheeses is now closed.”

China imported more than £300m of cheese last year, according to customs data, but the statistics do not specify which varieties made up the bulk of that. Most of the strong, pungent cheeses affected by the ban are unpopular with Chinese people and are mostly consumed by foreign residents.

The news sent expats scrambling to buy cheese from remaining stocks. Online cheese shop Cheese Republic said in statement confirming the ban: “In my opinion: no bacteria = fake cheese.”

Chinese health regulations permit only a few types of bacteria in dairy products, but there is an exemption for “cultures that are traditionally used for food production”. That exemption does not apply to imported goods, but it is not clear what made authorities crackdown on cheese now.

Hard cheese such as cheddar, comté, gruyère and manchego are unaffected by the new rules, but the arbitrary nature of the ban on soft cheese has European officials worried.

“The European cheese industry is extremely concerned by this ban,” Fingleton said. “We are concerned that potentially many other types of cheeses may be affected in the future in the same way.”

There are currently tonnes of cheese being wasted because it cannot clear customs, Fingleton said. Cheese industry representatives have asked the government for clarification, but have not received any clear answer, he said.

The EU is currently surveying member states before it lobbies China to update regulations covering cheese.

China previously banned British cheese in 2014 when the food standards agency complained about hygiene standards at an unnamed dairy, but later lifted the prohibition. Italian mozzarella faced a similar ban in 2008 when the government ordered a recall, believing some products contained carcinogens.

China’s food safety watchdog, the general administration of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine, and the county’s customs department did not respond to requests for comment.

Output: China has banned the import of nearly 50 types of European soft cheese, including brie, camembert, gorgonzola and stilton. The ban began in several Chinese cities in July and was implemented nationwide in August after the country's health authorities found they contained bacteria that had not been officially approved. Regulations permit only a few types of bacteria in dairy products, and exemptions for traditional foods do not apply to imports. Tonnes of cheese are reportedly being wasted because it cannot be imported, and the EU is surveying member countries before lobbying China to amend its regulations.


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Amazon searches for second HQ as it outgrows Seattle
 Amazon's (AMZN) surprise announcement Thursday that it plans to look for a second corporate headquarters in North America is likely to set off a bidding war among cities and municipalities, eager for a bite at the $38 billion in economic growth potential the company has promised with a second HQ.

The company gave some clues about what it wants for its cheekily named "HQ2" -- a location similar to its Seattle campus that is urban or suburban, well-connected to transit and in a metro area with at least 1 million people. But beyond that, the fact that it's going through a public process and accepting bids suggest it's open to looking far and wide -- and willing to be swayed by generous state and municipal tax breaks whipped up by local governments.

"It's unusual to go through a [request for proprosal] process, essentially shopping for a new location before any vetting is done on their own for a new location," said Dennis Donovan, president of WDG Consulting, a location search company.

The U.S. has 55 metro areas with a population over 1 million. Excluding Seattle itself and cities in Puerto Rico (an unlikely choice considering the U.S. territory's fiscal issues and legal status), that leaves 53.

Though Amazon specified a city larger than 1 million, most experts predict the behemoth will need a much larger metropolitan area.

"Amazon is so large that it itself is a place-maker and a place-changer," said Susan Wachter, co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania. "It cannot put itself down in the middle of nowhere because it would overwhelm whatever was there."

That leaves out college towns like State College, Pennsylvania, or Ann Arbor, Michigan, where more than half of the population is college-educated but which lack proximity to major metro centers, along with their infrastructure.

"Amazon is a prototypical innovation economy company. It relies on a lot of workers with a lot of technical training," said Joseph Parilla, a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy program at the Brookings Institute. "We're looking at a combination of factors that might make an attractive labor market, like the quantity and quality of the college-educated force."

Among the many factors Amazon listed, that's the one that weighs above all others: talent. All the experts who spoke with CBS News for this story said the size and quality of the potential workforce would be a big factor for the project's location, which promises to hire 50,000 people at six-figure salaries.

That also means the places Amazon already has fulfillment centers won't necessarily have an advantage because those centers tend to employ hourly workers with lower-skilled people.

A third of U.S. adults have a bachelor's degree, so to find relatively high-educated cities, CBS News looked at metro areas where more than 33 percent of the population has a college degree or higher.

Twenty-six cities fit this criteria:

Metro area State Population Percent with bachelor's degree New York-Newark-Jersey City NY 20,153,634 38.40 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim CA 13,310,447 32.70 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin IL 9,512,999 36.00 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington TX 7,233,323 33.40 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria DC 6,131,977 49.30 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington PA 6,070,500 36.00 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell GA 5,789,700 37.00 Boston-Cambridge-Newton MA 4,794,447 46.00 San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward CA 4,679,166 47.20 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington MN 3,551,036 40.30 San Diego-Carlsbad CA 3,317,749 37.20 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood CO 2,853,077 41.80 Baltimore-Columbia-Towson MD 2,798,886 38.60 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia NC 2,474,314 33.50 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro OR 2,424,955 37.90 Pittsburgh PA 2,342,299 33.00 Kansas City MO 2,104,509 35.80 Austin-Round Rock TX 2,056,405 42.60 Columbus OH 2,041,520 35.10 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara CA 1,978,816 48.70 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin TN 1,865,298 33.60 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis WI 1,572,482 33.90 Raleigh NC 1,302,946 44.40 Richmond VA 1,281,708 35.20 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford CT 1,206,836 38.30 Rochester NY 1,078,879 37.30

Note: The Los Angeles metro, where 32.7 percent of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, fell below the educational cutoff, but it was included on this list due to its size and because its entertainment industry is potentially important to Amazon. Source: U.S. Census/American Community Survey, 2015 estimates

Beyond that, the particular qualities that Amazon wants aren't always easy to find in combination -- especially considering the facility's size.

"You need a place that has enough land to put a site in. That can be a challenge for some of the places with the most sophisticated transit systems," said Parilla. Conversely, places with more land, like Atlanta, Denver and Houston, tend to have relatively less transit.

One thing that likely won't have much of an impact? The subsidies that the state or city offers, experts said -- although tax breaks might make a difference if two top-tier cities competed that were otherwise very similar.

"I often tell my clients that all the incentives in the world won't make the wrong location right," said Bruce Maus, a logistical consultant.

CBS News' Jillian Harding contributed reporting.

Output: Amazon has outgrown its original headquarters in Seattle, where it's been based for over 20 years, and is looking elsewhere to set up a second base, expected to more than double the size of its footprint. Amazon currently houses around 40,000 employees in Seattle and has driven considerable growth in the area; a similar impact is expected wherever it chooses to sets up its second HQ.


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Uganda sets target of four million Chinese tourists by 2020
 A Ugandan dance group performing at the tourism expo in China

TOURISM|UGANDA-CHINA RELATIONS

Tourism minister, Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu, has said Uganda is targeting four million tourists by 2020.

Prof Kamuntu is heading a delegation of government and private sector players at the China Guangdong International Tourism Expo as part of promotional efforts to get at least one million tourists from the world's largest outbound tourist nation.

Speaking at the sidelines of the expo last weekend, Kamuntu said: "We are going to embark on an aggressive marketing campaign in this important market," he said

The minister was accompanied by Stephen Asiimwe, the chief executive officer of the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), staff of the Guangzhou Consulate, led by Ambassador Solomon Rutega, Uganda's consul general in Guangzhou and official from the Uganda embassy in Beijing.

"In this year's budget, we have included an item for market representation and public relations. We hope that this will help bolster our presence in the Chinese market, increase visibility and awareness of the destination and grow visitor stay and spend in Uganda," Asiimwe said.

Tourism minister Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu Tourism minister Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu The expo and conference, was held at the Pazhou Exhibition Complex in Guangzhou, the capital Guangdong, China's richest province, with a GDP of $1.15 trillion and a population of over 110 million people.

The side event was organised as part of ongoing activities by the consulate to create further awareness of Uganda as a favourable tourist destination.

Ambsaador Rutega said since the establishment of the consulate, trade, investment and tourism had increased tremendously.

The minister is in Guangzhou, as part of his visit to China, during which he will attend the General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

He will also preside over another consulate-organised conference on promoting Uganda's investment and tourism opportunities in Nanning City, Guangxi province next week.

Output: Uganda is seeking to attract 4 million tourists from China by 2020, its tourism minister, Ephraim Kamuntu, has said. Kamuntu was leading a delegation to the China Guangdong International Tourism Expo to promote his country's efforts to attract at least 1 million Chinese visitors. "We are going to embark on an aggressive marketing campaign in this important market,” he said.


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Hurricane Irma could cost $300bn and raise food prices
 The economic cost of Hurricane Irma could rise as high as $300bn (£227bn) as the storm lashes Florida, damaging homes, businesses and key crops including orange groves.

Analysts said about $2tn of property lay in the storm’s path, and also pointed to the potential impact on US food prices. Florida is the second-largest produce grower in the US and the world’s second-largest producer of orange juice.

Torsten Jeworrek, a member of the board of the German reinsurance giant Munich Re, said on Sunday that Irma was “a major event for Florida and also a major event for the insurance industry”.

The hurricane has already unsettled the financial markets, sending insurance stocks falling and orange juice futures surging last week. The price of contracts for November deliveries of frozen orange juice concentrate spiked as investors feared the worst after the destruction Irma wrought in the Caribbean.

Barrie Cornes, an analyst at the stockbroker Panmure Gordon, put the overall economic cost at $300bn, with insurance firms potentially on the hook for between $100bn and $150bn when the clean-up operation gets under way.

Florida also grows other important crops including tomatoes, grapefruits, watermelons and sugar cane. Irma could wipe out as much as 20% of the state’s citrus crop, a significant part of its economy, analysts have suggested.

01:48 Hurricane Irma's path of destruction - video report

Alan Konn of the Chicago-based commodity trading firm Price Asset Management said: “The damage to the orange crop is twofold, both short-term disruption but also to the extent crops are completely destroyed.”

Irma could also have a longer-term impact because it takes a few years to grow an orange tree to production, which would limit supply for an extended period, he said in an interview on the financial website MarketWatch.

The insurance industry is still assessing the cost of Hurricane Harvey, which caused severe flooding in parts of Texas last month. Initial estimates suggest the final bill could be as much as $100bn. That compares with economic damage of $176bn inflicted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which included $82bn of insured losses, according to the Swiss Re Institute.

Risk modeller Chuck Watson of Enki Research said on Sunday afternoon that Irma looked ‘pretty grim’.

“Damage the roof of a million homes, which is possible in this storm, and the cost racks up pretty quick,” Watson said. He fears that Florida’s orange and grapefruit crop will probably be “severely damaged” if the winds over the centre of the state, between Lake Okeechobee and Orlando, are as high as expected.

The hurricane is “bad news for the Florida insurance market, which is now dominated by smaller firms since the big national companies pulled out after the rash of storms in the mid 2000s,” Watson added.

Output: Hurricane Irma, which has caused widespread destruction in the Caribbean and Florida, could result in economic costs of £227bn ($300bn), according to analysts. Up to $2tn of property is potentially in the path of the storm, which could also affect US food prices. Florida is the second largest producer of crops, including grapefruits, sugar cane, tomatoes and watermelons, in the US, and the second-biggest producer of orange juice in the world. Up to 20% of the state’ citrus crop could be eradicated by the storm.


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UK “violated" duty to guard citizens from air pollution: UN
 The UK government is “flouting” its duty to protect the lives and health of its citizens from illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution, according to the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights related to toxic waste.

Baskut Tuncak issued his warning after a fact-finding mission to the UK in January at the invitation of the government in a report that has been shared exclusively with the Guardian before it is presented to the UN human rights council this week.

“Air pollution continues to plague the UK,” he said. “I am alarmed that despite repeated judicial instruction, the UK government continues to flout its duty to ensure adequate air quality and protect the rights to life and health of its citizens. It has violated its obligations.”

Such harsh international criticism will be embarrassing for the government, whose air pollution plans have already been ruled illegally poor twice. The latest plan forced by the courts was released in July but condemned as “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors.

Air pollution causes an estimated 40,000 early deaths every year in Britain and was declared a “public health emergency” by MPs in 2016. Air pollution is worst overall in London, but many other places have illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide emitted by diesel vehicles, such as Leeds, Birmingham, Bournemouth and Northampton. Ipswich has higher levels of particulate matter than London.

London breached its nominal annual air pollution limits five days into 2017 at Brixton Road in south London. Other known pollution hotspots in the capital include Putney High Street in west London, Oxford Street, Kings Road in Chelsea and the Strand.

In his report for the UN, Tuncak assessed how well the UK protects human rights that are infringed by pollution, such as the rights to life, health and safe housing.

Vulnerable groups were worst affected by air pollution, he said: “Children, older persons and people with pre-existing health conditions are at grave risk of mortality, morbidity and disability, with magnified risks among the poor and minorities.”

A government spokeswoman said Brexit represented an opportunity to improve the UK’s air quality standards. “EU policies, from the common agricultural policy to vehicle emissions tests, have damaged the environment. Our £3bn air quality plan will address the dirty air caused by the EU’s failed testing regime, and in ending the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040, the UK is more ambitious than most EU member states including Germany.

“We now have an opportunity to deliver a green Brexit, ensuring the UK is a global leader in environmental protection,” she said.

Anna Heslop, at ClientEarth, the lawyers who have twice defeated the government on air quality standards, said: “This damning report with regard to air pollution is unsurprising but no less shocking for that. The UK has illegal levels of air pollution and successive governments have fought us in the courts rather than tackling it effectively.

“We are glad the report says the government must listen to the experts, including its own, and develop a national network of clean air zones to keep the worst polluting vehicles out of the most polluted areas of our towns and cities. This should happen as soon as possible.”

A new, wide-ranging ClientEarth report argues the government’s claim that all EU environmental laws will be retained after Brexit is misleading. Tuncak’s report criticises the government over other aspects of environmental policy “loopholes” in fracking regulation; the loss of environmental staff due to austerity which has resulted in “serious governance gaps”; and the risks to environmental safety posed by Brexit.

Tuncak also warned of the risk that fracking, soon to start in Lancashire, poses to safe water. “UK regulations on fracking are complex, split between several regulators and do not appear to be sufficiently stringent,” he said. “Fragmented policymaking allows for loopholes.”

All the UK’s environmental regulators have suffered due to budget cuts, he found: “The decreasing financial, technical and human resources due to austerity have created serious governance gaps.” The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has lost a third of its staff compared with 2007.

Another consequence of austerity was Defra’s ending in March of capital grants to local councils for cleaning up contaminated land sites, which the UN report said posed “potentially serious health risks”.

Tuncak warned that unless the UK’s future green standards equalled those of the European Union, “the UK could risk becoming a haven for ‘dirty’ industries and a dumping ground for products failing to meet EU regulations”.

Labour MP Mary Creagh, who chairs the environmental audit committee, said: “It is vital the government passes a new environmental protection act as soon as possible to protect the lives and livelihoods of millions of people.” Tuncak backs that call in his report.

The committee warned in January that Brexit could result in key environmental protections being left as ineffective “zombie legislation”. Creagh said the UN report highlighted the “government’s lack of clarity about the future of environmental issues after Brexit and how they will stop the UK from becoming a dumping ground for dirty industries and a haven for bad practice”.

Tuncak’s report also asks the UK government to “reconsider national plans to increase reliance on nuclear energy, considering that long-term storage of nuclear waste is uncertain and poses significant risks to the population”. He criticised the UK’s cuts to legal aid and protection from legal costs which make it “extremely challenging” for victims of environmental harm to seek redress in the courts.

Output: The UK government has “violated its obligations” to protect citizens from air pollution, according to a report by the United Nations. Baskut Tuncak, UN special rapporteur on human rights related to toxic waste, warned of potential risks to safe water posed by fracking and urged the UK government to reconsider plans to increase the use of nuclear energy. The UK also needs to match European Union green standards after Brexit in order to avoid “becoming a haven for ‘dirty’ industries”, said Tuncak. An estimated 40,000 premature deaths are caused in the UK each year by air pollution.


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Plans to set deadline for fossil fuel-powered vehicles in China
 China is preparing to bring an end to the sale and production of fossil fuel vehicles, according to a report in Bloomberg. The country is aiming to use the ban as a way to encourage local automakers into developing electric cars.

Speaking at an auto forum on Saturday, Xin Guobin, the country’s vice minister of industry and information technology said that regulators are working to come up with a timeline for phasing out the sales and production of the vehicles.

Output: Chinese regulators plan to set a deadline for auto manufacturers to terminate sales of fossil fuel-powered vehicles. The government is looking to create a timetable with automakers to work out when production and sales should come to a close, said Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology. The ban is expected to accelerate efforts by EV manufacturers, both Chinese and foreign, to stake a claim in the world's second-biggest economy.


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John Deere buys farming AI company Blue River for $305m
 If you are a weed, we have some somber news.

John Deere, the farm equipment company that’s been chasing autonomous technology for more than 20 years, has agreed to buy Blue River Technology, a startup that uses AI to automatically identify and spray herbicide on weeds. The price of a 60-person farming AI startup? $305 million.

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Blue River Technology makes a number of farm tools: an automatic precision weed-sprayer, a device that trims lettuce at scale, and software for drones to analyze crops. The company once considered using a Tesla coil to zap weeds, according to Willy Pell, Blue River’s director of new technology, which is objectively a cool idea.

John Deere’s tractors have a level of autonomy today—some can steer themselves via help from GPS signals, while image sensors can determine the quality of grain during harvesting. But the company says Blue River’s AI will allow future tractors to understand each individual plant in crops like lettuce and cotton, two areas Blue River has already showcased.

The acquisition underscores the immense value placed on AI research and development companies in recent years. Twitter infamously paid $150 million for the 11-person Magic Pony Technology in 2016, and in a deal that’s looking more and more like a steal, Google bought the DeepMind research lab in 2014 for more than $500 million.

Output: Farm equipment provider John Deere plans to purchase farming AI firm Blue River Technology for $305m. The 60-person start-up produces a range of farming tools, including an automatic precision weed sprayer, a lettuce trimmer and drone software for crop analysis. John Deere's tractors already incorporate limited autonomous capabilities; the purchase of Blue River will help the company build increasing amounts of intelligence into its vehicles.


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RWE applies for permits for Scottish low-carbon heat network
 Construction work on an ambitious project to bring cheap energy to central Glenrothes could begin next year.

A formal planning application has been submitted to Fife Council for the construction of the proposed Glenrothes Energy Network project.

The £17.1 million initiative, spearheaded by the local authority in conjunction with energy firm RWE and the Scottish Government, aims to supply low carbon heat to a range of businesses, public sector premises and homes through a vast network of underground pipes.

Ross Tulloch, programme manager for the Glenrothes Energy Network, said that getting to the planning permission stage was a huge step for the project.

“Submitting the full planning application brings us one step closer to offering clean, affordable energy to Glenrothes town centre,” he said.

“Design and preparatory work on the programme continues apace.

“By the end of the year we’ll know if this project’s progressing to the installation phase and work should begin early in 2018.”

Hundreds of homes and dozens of local businesses could benefit from the scheme, which would see a network of underground pipes installed to supply low-carbon heat to buildings in the town centre area.

It will take advantage of the current heat capacity from the RWE Markinch biomass plant and energy could be provided to the council’s buildings at Fife House and Rothesay House as early as January 2019.

A further 327 homes have also been identified as potential beneficiaries, as well as the Rothes Halls and local library, major retailers, a social and community club and a local church.

Preliminary work has already been carried out in the town, with eight trial pits and 10 bore holes dug throughout the town earlier this summer.

While the project will initially focus on the town centre, further phases could see the network expand to more homes and to the south of the town, as far as Pitteuchar West Primary School, Fife College and the Michael Woods Sports and Leisure Centre.

The Scottish Government has awarded a grant of £8.5 million from its Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme to the project, with Fife Council and RWE providing the rest of the funding.

Output: Energy company RWE has submitted a planning application for its proposed £17.1m ($22.5m) energy network project in Scotland. The project at Glenrothes is being pursued with the backing of the Scottish Government, which has put £8.5m ($11.2m) towards it, with the remainder coming from RWE and Fife Council. It will use existing heat capacity from RWE's Markinch biomass plant to heat homes and businesses in Glenrothes via a network of underground pipes. Design and preparatory work is underway, and if planning permission is granted, installation is expected to take place from early 2018.