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Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino and Dellin Betances among Dominican stars helping Pedro Martinez with coronavirus relief

Dominican Yankees and Mets stars are working with Pedro Martinez to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in their homeland.




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Expected Profits and The Scientific Novelty of Innovation -- by David Dranove, Craig Garthwaite, Manuel I. Hermosilla

Innovation policy involves trading off monopoly output and pricing in the short run in exchange for incentives for firms to develop new products in the future. While existing research demonstrates that expected profits fuel R&D investments, little is known about the novelty of the projects funded by these investments. Relying on data that describe the scientific approaches used by a large sample of experimental drug projects, we expand on this literature by examining the scientific novelty of pharmaceutical R&D investments following the creation of the Medicare Part D program. We find little evidence that the positive demand shock implied by this program prompted firms to undertake scientifically novel R&D activity, as measured by whether the specific scientific approach had been used before. However, we find some evidence that firms invested in products involving novel combinations of scientific approaches. These estimates can inform economists and policymakers assessing the tradeoffs associated with marginal changes in commercial returns from newly developed pharmaceutical products.




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Geographic Mobility in America: Evidence from Cell Phone Data -- by M. Keith Chen, Devin G. Pope

Traveling beyond the immediate surroundings of one’s residence can lead to greater exposure to new ideas and information, jobs, and greater transmission of disease. In this paper, we document the geographic mobility of individuals in the U.S., and how this mobility varies across U.S. cities, regions, and income classes. Using geolocation data for ~1.7 million smartphone users over a 10-month period, we compute different measures of mobility, including the total distance traveled, the median daily distance traveled, the maximum distance traveled from one’s home, and the number of unique haunts visited. We find large differences across cities and income groups. For example, people in New York travel 38% fewer total kilometers and visit 14% fewer block-sized areas than people in Atlanta. And, individuals in the bottom income quartile travel 12% less overall and visit 13% fewer total locations than the top income quartile.




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Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Group Performance -- by Ben Weidmann, David J. Deming

Most jobs require teamwork. Are some people good team players? In this paper we design and test a new method for identifying individual contributions to group performance. We randomly assign people to multiple teams and predict team performance based on previously assessed individual skills. Some people consistently cause their group to exceed its predicted performance. We call these individuals “team players”. Team players score significantly higher on a well-established measure of social intelligence, but do not differ across a variety of other dimensions, including IQ, personality, education and gender. Social skills – defined as a single latent factor that combines social intelligence scores with the team player effect – improve group performance about as much as IQ. We find suggestive evidence that team players increase effort among teammates.




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Auto Executive Carlos Ghosn on His Risky Escape from Japan

Former Renault-Nissan chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn fled Japan in a dramatic escape just over a month ago. He is currently the subject of an Interpol search warrant. DER SPIEGEL met him in Beirut for an interview.




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Pandemic Response: Volkswagen Moving to Suspend Production Across Europe

Just as Volkswagen was undergoing a radical restructuring to focus on e-mobility and driverless cars, the company has announced it is shutting down factories across Europe due to the coronavirus. There is hope in China, however.




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Lufthansa CEO on How Coronavirus Has Radically Upended the Aviation Industry

The coronavirus pandemic has inflicted massive damage on the aviation industry. But Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr says that the German flag carrier is in a good position to survive, even if it will take several years for the industry to recover.




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Live coronavirus updates for Thursday, May 7: Utah minorities especially affected by COVID-19, panelists say




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Start the movie! Redwood Drive In is open, with COVID-19 safety precautions in place




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Utah economists expect a tough summer before a winter recovery, as 9,000 more file for unemployment




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BYU looking at a wide array of options for playing the 2020 football season, including independent, regional schedules




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Kicking off: Texans at Chiefs to open NFL season Sept. 10




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Utah cook to compete on ‘Bakeaway Camp with Martha Stewart’




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Live coronavirus updates for Friday, May 8: West Jordan canceling the Western Stampede rodeo due to COVID-19 concerns




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Thomas Toland Smart: Don’t ‘open up’ without seat belts and guardrails




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Jana Riess: What history tells us about Donald Trump’s reelection prospects




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Kyle Roerink and Steve Erickson: The tale of two pipelines for desert cities




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Utah gun lobbyist loses his appeal to block the ban on bump stocks




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Did you order a grocery pickup? Don’t expect that six-pack to be in your bag. In Utah, you have to buy beer inside.




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Bill Tibbitts: Utah must not allow people to be evicted for being sick during a pandemic




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VP Pence’s press secretary tests positive for coronavirus




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Here’s where all Utah’s hospitals and health departments get PPE




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Letter: Bad things happen when we aren’t looking




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Letter: Don’t tell me not to pet the rats




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As Utah’s national parks reopen, visitors should brace for a ‘new normal’




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Acting National Park Service director talks about what to expect in Utah and why it will vary from park to park




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Supermarkets limiting meat purchases amid tight supply and buyer panic

Meat is going the way of toilet paper, and grocery stores are rushing to stay ahead of panic buying as supplies tighten during the coronavirus pandemic. Just as scared shoppers snapped up hand sanitizer, soap and yes, toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic, now they are rushing to stock meat. Grocery chains across the country have begun limiting meat purchases in response to the dual pressures.




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Trump’s valet tests positive for coronavirus, but both the president and Pence are fine

A member of the U.S. Navy who serves as one of President Trump’s personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus.




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DC Comics superhero Hershey bars are coming but sent to frontline coronavirus workers first

Talk about a sweet gesture. A line of DC Comics superhero chocolate bars is coming, but before you can get your hands on them, Hershey’s is first giving them out to workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.




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Ex-NFL star Brett Favre to repay $1.1 million for no-show speeches: auditor

Former NFL star Brett Favre said Wednesday he would repay the state of Mississippi $1.1 million after a state auditor discovered the Mississippi Department of Human Services paid the ex-quarterback for speaking engagements that never happened.




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All buzz and no sting? Experts say ‘murder hornets’ are overhyped

They don’t want people bugging out.




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Southwest Airlines plane hits and kills person as it lands on Texas runway

A Southwest jet traveling from Dallas fatally struck a person as it touched down at a Texas airport Thursday night, authorities said.




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Pete Davidson asks people to stop bringing drugs to his mom’s house on Staten Island

Pete Davidson, who recently said he quit using drugs, urged people not to drop off any weed or other illegal substances at his mom’s Staten Island house after a stranger did just that a few days ago.




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Vanessa Bryant files legal claim over images from Kobe Bryant chopper crash: report

The claim seeks damages in connection with the release of cellphone pictures taken by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies at the scene of the Jan. 26 tragedy in Calabasas.




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No burglaries were reported in neighborhood where Ahmaud Arbery was killed, contradicting suspects’ claim: report

An already-unlikely motive in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case became even more suspicious on Friday. The two Georgia men who were caught on video shooting the unarmed jogger to death in February claim they were chasing a suspect behind a series of burglaries in the area. But a local police official said the last break-in the neighborhood was reported nearly two months before the shooting.




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Disney Springs in Orlando starting phased reopening after coronavirus closures

Disney World is beginning to spring into action. Disney Springs, the company’s outdoor dining, shopping and entertainment complex near its Florida theme parks, is set to begin a phased reopening on May 20 following closures to reduce the spread of coronavirus.




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Costco shoppers upset the retailer is requiring customers to wear face masks during a pandemic

Some Costco customers are not happy about having to wear masks in stores.




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Boeing 737 fatally strikes pedestrian on Texas runway

A Boeing 737 ran over a man who was on an Austin, TX runway




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Trade Credit and the Transmission of Unconventional Monetary Policy -- by Manuel Adelino, Miguel A. Ferreira, Mariassunta Giannetti, Pedro Pires

We show that trade credit in production networks is important for the transmission of unconventional monetary policy. We find that firms with bonds eligible for purchase under the European Central Bank’s Corporate Sector Purchase Program act as financial intermediaries and extend more trade credit to their customers. The increase in trade credit flows is more pronounced from core countries to periphery countries and towards financially constrained customers. Customers increase investment and employment in response to the additional financing, while suppliers with eligible bonds increase their customer base, potentially favoring upstream industry concentration. Our findings suggest that the trade credit channel of monetary policy produces heterogeneous effects on regions, industries, and firms.




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Taking government money? Disclose your political spending: Companies should opt for transparency now more than ever

With increasing reports of large public companies and politically connected ones receiving COVID-19 rescue aid and the Trump administration blocking proper oversight, business leaders can act on their own to protect the integrity of the government aid effort and of companies themselves. They can do that by disclosing their companies’ political spending to show that political influence is not a factor in who gets help.




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Questioning Tara Reade’s story doesn’t make one a rape apologist: On Joe Biden and #MeToo

Over almost three decades prosecuting criminals, I’ve been threatened, had a Santeria curse put on me, and been called a “fu--ing a--hole” on more occasions than I can count. But until my column for USA Today last week, “Why I’m skeptical about Reade’s sexual assault claim against Biden,” I’d never been called a “rape apologist.”




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GREENE: Same profiling, same brutality, same disrespect — social distancing enforcement shows NYC ‘not as far as we think we are’

As much as Mayor de Blasio wants to pretend these arrests are just a drop in the bucket, from the point of view of those being constantly dropped in the bucket, the city’s heavy-handed coronavirus crackdown is just more of the same.Same profiling. Same brutality. Same disrespect.




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Trae Young is the perfect Knicks target

The Knicks have the draft picks to make a major swing on the trade market, and the Atlanta point guard makes sense for everyone involved.




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Trae Young is the perfect Knicks target

The Knicks have the draft picks to make a major swing on the trade market, and the Atlanta point guard makes sense for everyone involved.




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Vanessa Bryant files legal claim over images from Kobe Bryant chopper crash: report

The claim seeks damages in connection with the release of cellphone pictures taken by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies at the scene of the Jan. 26 tragedy in Calabasas.




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Ex-NBA player Shannon Brown arrested for shooting at people he thought were breaking into his home

Former NBA guard Shannon Brown was arrested recently after shooting a rifle in a mixup at his home.




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Supertall residential building will enter crowded NYC market

A New York City condominium tower will be the world’s tallest predominantly residential building when it opens next year, though it will be competing with other ultra-luxury buildings for billionaire buyers, the building’s developer said Tuesday.




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Storm-damaged Bahamas properties hot as investors chase bargains

After Hurricane Dorian savaged the northern islands of the Bahamas, damaged properties loom as a target for real estate speculators.




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Scientologists buy dozens of properties in Florida city, newspaper reports

In a report published Sunday, the Tampa Bay Times said that it discovered the extent of Scientology property purchases by reviewing more than 1,000 deeds and business records and then interviewed more than 90 people to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding the transactions.




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Iconic Las Vegas wedding chapel is no longer up for sale

The owner of a Las Vegas chapel where celebrity couples like Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner have gotten married is staying wedded to her business.