The coronavirus pandemic could delay the removal of a 72-foot long fishing vessel that has been grounded for weeks on a beach on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The scallop harvesting boat is considered a safety hazard as curious people climb aboard its rusting hull. The Virginian-Pilot reported Saturday that removing the abandoned boat could cost more than $60,000. The boat’s owner is responsible for its removal. But the owner lives in Texas. Stay-at-home orders have limited travel between states. Visitors are also banned from coming to the Outer Banks. The ship ran aground during a storm on March 1 near Oregon Inlet.

The Carteret County Board of Commissioners lifted travel restrictions for visitors on Wednesday. An amendment to the county’s state of emergency proclamation also allows the rental of hotel and motel rooms, condominiums, RV campsites, and similar accommodations. According to a news release, the amendment only applies to locations within the unincorporated areas of Carteret County. Officials say residents and visitors should continue to follow the guidance of Governor Cooper’s stay-at-home order, which is in effect through May 8th.

FEMA recently approved disaster assistance funding for public utilities affected by Hurricane Dorian. More than $940,000 will go to Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative for the replacement of damaged poles and transformers. The City of Kinston will receive more than $143,000 to replace damaged poles and transformers. And Brunswick County will receive nearly $45,000 for wastewater treatment repairs. FEMA has provided more than $16.1 million for Hurricane Dorian-related expenses in North Carolina through the Public Assistance program.

Thursday, June 25, 2015, at 7 p.m. This "Context" public affairs event takes a closer look at Illinois' medical cannabis pilot program approved by state lawmakers. There have been a few delays getting the project started, and tens of thousands of patients who’ve qualified for medical marijuana cards are waiting to get their prescriptions filled. However, before that happens, there are some regulatory hurdles marijuana growers and dispensaries have to cross before the drug can be sold in Illinois. Learn more about the “debilitating” diseases that qualify for marijuana treatment, grow centers, dispensaries, and the legal rights protecting patients. Four experts in the field brought us up to date on the program and answered questions on June 25 at 7 p.m. in Studio A, in the Northern Public Radio studios in the NIU Broadcast Center, 801 N. First Street in DeKalb. The guest panelists included: Dan Linn: Executive Director, Illinois chapter of National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws,

There’s been a lot of news about strained relationships between police officers and the citizens they serve. Police officials say they’re making changes to improve relations and build trust within the community but critics claim not enough is being done. WNIJ's public forum, “Context - Safe Neighborhoods, Safe City: Changing Roles of Police and Community,” was held Thursday, August 27, 2015, at the Kresge Hall in the Riverfront Museum Park, in Rockford. WNIJ Reporter Sue Stephens moderated the Context panel. Guests were: Rockford Mayor Lawrence J. Morrissey Rockford Police Chief Chet Epperson State Representative Litesa Wallace United Way Community Impact Manager Matthew Simpson For more information about WNIJ's Context series, please contact Maria Boynton, Director of Community Engagement, at mboynton@niu.edu or at (815) 753-9000.

Activists in the Black Lives Matter movement recently published a 10-point plan to reduce police violence. Rockford leaders are responding to the proposal. It’s called "Campaign Zero." National activists want stronger guidelines limiting the use of force. They also want to ban police quotas for tickets and arrests , and end the sale of military weapons to police forces. Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey: “I don’t know that it’s intended to be a one-size solution. It lays out a series of agenda items. We are already moving forward on a vast majority of what I think those items are.” Morrissey says new measures at the state level are also intended to address interactions during field interviews, or a so-called “stop-and-frisk.” “The next step will be, starting next year, we will have to give a receipt to the individual so they know who is the officer-- and their badge number. If they have a complaint to file, they will have more information to do that.” Matthew Simpson co-leads My Brother’s

Experts says India needs to avoid ‘vice versus virtue’ dichotomy with regard to alcohol.

Pernod Ricard, estimated to have revenues of Rs 21,000 crore in India in 2019-20 on sale of around 55 million cases, sells imported brands such as Chivas Regal, ABSOLUT, Glenlivet and Jameson, apart from the locally-made large-selling ones such as Royal Stag, Blenders Pride, and 100 Pipers.

Assam cabinet held its meeting on Friday through video conferencing. Assam Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said the 25 per cent hike will add Rs 1000 crore to the government's kitty.

The pandemic is also likely to catalyse the shift to e-commerce.

“The Puma and First Mile programme has diverted about 40 tonnes of plastic waste from landfills and oceans, just for the products made for 2020. This roughly translates into 1,980,286 plastic bottles being reused,” said Stefan Seidel, head of corporate sustainability for Puma, in a press statement

​​​​Voganow Fashion owned Brune & Bareskin sells leather jackets, footwear, bags and accessories for men on online platforms such as Myntra, Jabong and Snapdeal.

​​The Bluetooth-enabled smart sunglasses by Titan’s eyewear division will allow users to listen to music with 8-hour playtime. An in-built mic will give access to Siri and Google assistant and allow hands-free calling.

The growth of healthy lifestyle has added impetus to the athleisure trend.

Exports to Hong Kong, the sector's biggest market, plummeted 41.3 percent, while exports to France fell 48 percent, and those to South Korea were down 46.2 percent.

The elderly Viv notices our presence and invites us to sit in her kitchen, right there in front of her, where she can see us. Thus began the interactive video experience “The Visit“, born from the collaboration of the artist →

Duke University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0822368687, English, 288 pages, 2019, USA

Eidsheim starts this book by introducing ‘the acousmatic question’ (“who’s this, who’s speaking?”) to discuss the dichotomy between a sound and its source before and →

Bloomsbury Academic, ISBN-13: 978-1501333774, English, 208 pages, 2019, UK

This is the second (revisited edition) of one of the first books addressing sound art as such, attempting through a diversified research a consistent and universal →

INTRO – It’s not quite a comeback for the Cleveland County-based band the Acoustic Syndicate. They hadn’t been in a studio since 2004, they haven’t regularly toured in that time either… but they never quite got all the way out with occasional shows here and there over the last several years. Now they’re back in a big way… new tour, new CD… and again willing to consider the bright lights with the knowledge they can always contentedly return to the farm. George Olsen has this. The roots of the band the Acoustic Syndicate are certainly deep. The three McMurry’s who front the band… two brothers, one cousin… are fifth generation Cleveland Countiers. ”Cleveland County is the home of Earl Scruggs. He actually worked in the same cotton mill as my grandmother. They worked in the same mill when they were children.” Those five generations have farmed the same piece of land since the 1700s. In more modern times immigrant labor came in to help work the farm. “I guess the biggest eye opening

INTRO – A new CD by ENC native Jennifer Licko took a long, circuitous and electronic path toward final production. George Olsen has more. “It was a really nice collaboration of an Irish producer in Minnesota, an English producer in Florida and a Brazilian producer here in Brazil and I think it made for an interesting outcome.” … made even more multi-cultural by the fact the performer is a Swansboro native and East Carolina University graduate performing primarily in Scots Gaelic. Jennifer Licko discussing the virtual miles put in producing her latest CD “Sing.” Jennifer has lived a rather peripatetic life since graduating from ECU in 1998… time in Scotland, time here in eastern North Carolina, time in Brazil, time in Minnesota, time back in Brazil as of this date and time. The production of the new CD “Sing” also has that peripatetic motif. The English producer facetimed into a studio in Brazil to produce her vocal tracks with the Brazilian producer wherupon the Irish producer in

“While we are yet to feel the pressure in products sourced from third-party suppliers, there are shortages in Apple’s original accessories,” said one of the re-sellers of the American brand in an upmarket store at Gurgaon.

The decision was taken in the 39th GST Council meeting chaired by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The move was made to correct the inverted duty structure. ​

Handset makers and offline traders have urged the commerce and home ministries to allow the sale and service of mobile devices and its accessories through offline stores in the country.

Xbox will be available for Rs39,990, while the model with Kinect, an interface that allows the use of gestures to play games, will cost Rs45,990.

King Digital Entertainment Plc, owner of Candy Crush, has signed an exclusive licensing deal with Mumbai-based Dream Theatre, to license and sell Candy Crush branded products across South Asia.

The total outstanding amount, according to the agency, is approximately Rs 3695 crores. The agency had sealed the office and house of Vikram Kothari’s residence, in New Delhi.

Rotomac violated FEMA rules and worked for interest rate differential in local and foreign currency in the guise of trade without having any genuine business transactions.

Though the business is a precarious one, bookstores are here to stay as long as there are readers driven by a compulsion to read, say leading booksellers in the capital.

The company will spend about Rs 90 cr to expand and modernise the plant spread over 17 acres this fiscal, he said.

Sebi shall also appoint an independent audit firm for conducting a detailed forensic audit of the books of accounts of Ricoh for the financial year 2012-13 onwards till date, the cost of which shall be borne by Ricoh.

"Some part of Kurl-on's business did get cannibalized with the opening of IKEA's first store in Hyderabad, but it is not a cause of worry," Sudhakar Pai, Chairman and MD, Kurl-on says.

“We plan to rapidly expand our newly launched portfolio of Shower, Beard, Body & Electric trimmers to focus on becoming a one-stop grooming solution for men and women,” Sidharth Oberoi, CEO, LetsShave told ET.

According to the notification, companies that make phones priced at ₹15,000 and above and which make a cumulative investment of ₹1,000 crore over four years, starting with ₹250 crore in the first year, will qualify for an incentive of 6% for the first two years, followed by 5% for the next two and 4% in the fifth year..

India imports 45% of completely built units of consumer durables from China and it also imports nearly 70% of the components for television, and other consumer durable products. The price increase by suppliers at a time when demand is drastically down has hit the sector hard, said the presentation by Ficci to the government.

Having suffered an unprecedented sales decline of 6-7 per cent in 2019-20, the industry will be up against challenges in both supply and demand sides due to the coronavirus pandemic, Panasonic India and South Asia President and CEO Manish Sharma said.

Products such as laptops, smartphones and printers have become crucial for those working from home, while household appliances like washing machines, ACs, TVs and vacuum cleaners are now more important than ever for households.

​​Individually, each brand is seeking more clarity and approval on the guidelines. The guidelines say that we would have to open in a phased manner. All brands are gearing up to open up, wherever, it will be permitted," CEAMA President Kamal Nandi said.

Samsung has created an ecommerce platform in partnership with Benow.in along with mobile phone retailers across the country that will allow them to sell and deliver smartphones. Offline stores are also being used to fulfil orders placed on Samsung’s e-store for television and appliances.

Several brands took the decision since both offline and online market is closed leading to piling up of inventory in their warehouses, and several of their plants falling in red zones or in states where permission has not yet been given. Some states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka have also decided to not provide any relaxation to industries till the lockdown ends.

Companies like Panasonic India, Godrej Appliances, Dixon Technologies and Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd said with retail outlets shut there is no point to start production as there is existing unsold inventory of March at warehouses and dealers.

Most consumer durables companies in India rely on imported components. Poor input supplies since January and later closure of factories, malls, shops and offices due to the lockdown hit consumer demand badly.

"Sales and profits of set products business, including smartphones and TVs, are expected to decline significantly as COVID-19 affects demand and leads to store and plant closures globally," Samsung said in a statement.

The company has cut prices anywhere from Rs 2,000 on the smaller screen televisions going up to Rs two lakh on a flagship 85-inch model apart from rolling out long tenure no-cost EMI schemes and bundling offers. It has launched a new 85-inch model at Rs 5.9 lakh bringing down its earlier pricing structure of Rs 10 lakh in this screen size.

Rohan Mathur, senior regional sales manager - South Asia for The Lego Group spoke to ET about the toy industry, company’s India plans and its recent event in Delhi engaging the Indian government to prioritise play.

It has hired Sumeet Yadav, former CEO of South African restaurant chain Nando’s in India, to head Hamleys, according to two people aware of the development.

BigThinx’s neural networks create a personalised 3D virtual avatar from 2D images for fashion brands and their customers.

Giorgio Armani has donated 2 million euros in recent weeks to hospitals around Italy.

We foresee a deferred demand. Most of the weddings in Q1 got pushed to Q3 or Q4 due to the lockdown. People may spend less money on destination weddings, clothes and other events around it. But we expect investment in jewellery for weddings, said Ajoy Chawla, CEO of Titan’s jewellery division.

The lockdown has resulted in closure of retail stores across the country. Apart from this, there have been supply chain disruptions with restriction on movement of non-essential goods. While jewellery buying is generally spread throughout the year, it peaks during periods of Akshaya Tritiya, wedding and festival seasons as buying gold is considered culturally auspicious.

India’s gross import of rough diamonds had declined by 13.43% to $12.39 billion between April 2019 and February 2020 from a year earlier.