TSG-Backed Coffee Chain Dutch Bros Plans IPO This Year

Crystal Tse and Kiel Porter
·1 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Dutch Bros Coffee, backed by consumer-focused private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, is planning an initial public offering for this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The company, based in Grants Pass, Oregon, is seeking to be valued in an IPO at about $3 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Dutch Bros has held discussions with potential advisers about a listing, the people said.

A final decision on pursuing an IPO hasn’t been made and the company’s plans could still change, they said.

Representatives for Dutch Bros and TSG declined to comment.

Dutch Bros, founded by brothers Dane and Travis Boersma in 1992, operates coffee shops in the western U.S.

It sold a minority stake to TSG in 2018, according to a statement at the time. The deal price wasn’t disclosed.

At the time of the TSG transaction, Dutch Bros planned to grow to 800 shops by 2023, according to the statement. As of January, the company had 400 locations, it said in a statement. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, many of its outlets have been operating on a drive-through only basis.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Recommended Stories

  • Macron's party teams up with conservatives for regional elections in south

    French President Emmanuel Macron's centre-right party has formed an alliance with the conservative Les Republicains (LR) for regional elections in June in the southern Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, the prime minister was cited as saying on Sunday. Coming a year after Macron’s La Republique en Marche (LREM) party got trounced in municipal elections, the alliance shows a recognition within the ruling party that it is too weak and unpopular to win some regions on its own. Junior Minister Sophie Cluzel, the LREM's regional candidate, will thus run on same ticket led by Les Republicains' Renaud Muselier, president of the regional assembly.

  • Investors Should Ride the Green Wave With Li-Cycle

    Li-Cycle Corp. to go public via merger with Peridot Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: PDAC) Largest lithium-ion battery recycler in N. America Company also building 3rd battery-recycling facility in N. America, will double capacity in region Li-Cycle expects 82% annualized revenue growth from 2021-2025, far above peers PIPE investors include Neuberger Berman Funds, Franklin Templeton, Mubadala Capital […]

  • Get ready to pay more for toilet paper, soda and other common items, companies say

    Here’s why prices are rising.

  • 3 Cybersecurity Stocks Poised to Lock in Gains

    If we learned anything in 2020 about the modern workplace and our digital footprints, it was the ongoing importance of solid cybersecurity. A look through the news from the past 18 months reveals the extent of the danger. A few examples will suffice – that identity theft spiked during the pandemic crisis, with the 1.4 million reports to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) doubling the 2019 numbers; that on average, each data breach in 2020 incurred costs of $3.86 million; and that, by the year 2025, cybercrimes are projected to cost the global economy some $10.5 trillion per year. At a macro level, the scale of the problem is hard to conceive. So let’s scale down a bit, and look at cybercrime’s potential impact on companies. Here, the worries revolve around vulnerability. A recent IDG survey of more than 200 C-level IT professionals and execs found that 78% are not confident their organizations are prepared to meet the possible threats. Another statistic: in a major cybersecurity industry survey, it was found that in 53% of companies, there were more than 1,000 sensitive files open for every employee. The lack of protection is mirrored in careless use; only 5% of companies’ folders – just the ordinary information folders used in every computer memory – have any sort of proper data protection. What this means going forward can be measured in dollars and cents, and opportunity. Cybersecurity is a huge market, meeting an essential need in today’s digital society, the market for cybersecurity services and products is predicted to see a compound annual growth rate approaching 12.5% for the next several years, to reach $403 billion by 2027. This will open up enormous vistas for investors. Using the TipRanks platform, we’ve looked up three cybersecurity stocks that have attracted recent notice from Wall Street’s analyst corps. These are Buy-rated names, for which these analysts project at least 30% upside potential in the year ahead. Let’s take a closer look. Zscaler (ZS) We’ll start with Zscaler, a large-cap firm that brings cybersecurity through cloud applications. The company operates data centers supporting cloud-based security apps, designed to protect internet access and local applications. The company aims to provide secure internet use, so that customers can use the existing internet as a network – safely. Zscaler boasts more than 400 of the Forbes Global 2000 companies among its customers. In February this year, Zscaler reported its fiscal Q2 results, and showed strong growth across the board. Revenue was up 55% year-over-year, reaching $157 million, driven by billings growth of 71%, to $232 million. The company’s cash flows improved dramatically over the past year; in the recent Q2, operating cash flow increased from $5.4 million last year to $30.4 million, while free cash flow rose from a negative $1.9 million to $18 million. Zscaler is making moves to grow by acquisition, as well. The company announced in April that it will be entering into an acquisition agreement with the cloud security posture management company (CSPM) Cloudneeti, a move that will make Zscaler’s cloud security platform available to Cloudneeti’s existing customer base. While transaction terms were not disclosed, the move is expected to close during Zscaler’s fiscal third quarter. Covering this company from Canaccord Genuity, 5-star analyst Michael Walkley writes, “Our positive thesis is based on the company’s ability to securely facilitate customers’ cloud adoption initiatives, which is disrupting an estimated $20B+ spent annually on the entire perimeter defense stack. We believe Zscaler is a core centerpiece of a robust cybersecurity framework and expect the company will continue to deliver ~30%+ topline growth to $1B+ in revenue in F2023E with accelerating operating leverage and FCF generation as the market continues to converge on native cloud security and zero trust principles.” Walkley’s comments support his Buy rating on the stock, and his $250 price target implies a strong upside of 33% for the next 12 months. (To watch Walkley’s track record, click here.) Walkley is no outlier in his bullish take on Zscaler; the company has a Strong Buy rating from the analyst consensus, based on 20 reviews with a 15 to 5 breakdown between Buys and Holds. The shares are selling for $187.64, and their $236.75 average price target suggests an upside of 26% over the coming year. (See Zscaler’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) Crowdstrike Holdings, Inc. (CRWD) The next company on our list, Crowdstrike, is a $46 billion cybersecurity tech firm from Silicon Valley. It’s offerings include cyberattack response services, threat intelligence, and security for both workloads and endpoints. Crowdstrike has, in recent years, been involved in after-the-fact investigations of several high-profile cybersecurity breaches, including the Sony hack of 2014 and the hacks of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election cycle. Crowdstrike has seen rapid growth in both revenues and share value in recent year. On the financial end, the company’s top line rose 74% year-over-year in the recent fiscal 2021 Q4, from $152.1 million to $264.9 million. This was supported in part by a 77% gain in subscription revenue, which hit $244.7 million in the quarter. Another key metric, annual recurring revenue, grew 75% year-over-year, and hit $1.05 billion by end of January 2021. Of the ARR, more than 14% was new net revenue added during the quarter. The company’s cash flow increased more than 3.5x during fiscal 2020, from $99.9 million to $356.6 million. Like Zscaler above, Crowdstrike has been making acquisition moves in recent months. In September of last year, it completed an acquisition of Preempt Security, which provides Zero Trust and conditional access tech for threat prevention. More recently, this past March, Crowdstrike acquired Humio, the cloud-log management company, in a move worth almost $400 million. Of that total, 40 million was paid in stock and options, while $352 million was paid in cash. Through all of this, CRWD shares have shown consistent growth. The stock is up 201% in the last 12 months. This company’s strong, sustained growth has impressed Needham analyst Alex Henderson, rated 5 stars by TipRanks, who says, “We think investors will be rewarded for buying and holding onto these shares. We recognize the potential for downdrafts in CRWD from time to time as the company moves with market swings given its high beta. We are long-term buyers of CRWD for multi-year out-performance…. We think the estimates on the Street are overly conservative. We think the company is likely to grow in excess of 50% for the next 2-3 years and 30%-plus longer term.” Henderson gives CRWD shares a Buy rating, along with a $275 price target that indicates his confidence in 32% stock appreciation for the year ahead. (To watch Henderson’s track record, click here.) There is broad agreement on Wall Street with Henderson’s outlook, and Crowdstrike has earned 15 recent positive reviews – out of 18 published – to back its Strong Buy consensus rating. The stock is selling for $208.51, and has an average price target of $251.39, suggesting a 20% one-year upside from current levels. (See Crowdstrike’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) FireEye, Inc. (FEYE) Last up, FireEye, has been in the cybersecurity business since 2004 and is another of Silicon Valley’s large-cap tech firms. FireEye provides both software and hardware for protection against cyberattacks, along with investigative services, malware protection, and IT security risk analysis. The company has numerous high-profile clients, in the energy, communications, healthcare, financial, and government sectors. FireEye has buffeted about in recent months, by a series of good and bad news cycles. Starting in November, the company was on an upswing, announcing its acquisition of Respond Software in a transaction valued at $186 million, paid in both cash and stock. The move gives FireEye access to Respond’s XDR engine, which can be integrated into FireEye’s Mandiant platform. Also in November, FireEye announced a $400 million strategic investment from a coalition led by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities. The funds made available to FireEye paid for the Respond acquisition, as well as supported company platform expansion. In December, the news was mixed. FireEye acknowledged that its own network system had been breached. The cyberattack against this leading cybersecurity firm was carried out, according to FireEye, by a nation-state, and the hackers got away with a number of cybersecurity software tools. FEYE stock slipped on this news – but surged just days later when FireEye discovered and revealed publicly the highly sophisticated SolarWinds hack attack. Despite the mixed headlines, FireEye’s recent 1Q21 financial results were solid. At the top line, revenue was up 10% year-over-year, coming in ahead of the consensus estimate by $9.3 million to reach $246 million. Annualized recurring revenue reached $643 million, up 9% yoy and a company record. FireEye’s cash flow shifted from negative $24 million one year ago to a positive figure of $21 million in 1Q21. According to Catharine Trebnick, of Colliers Securities, FireEye’s success is based on the ongoing threat of cybersecurity attacks in the current digital environment. She writes, “Revenue outperformance was primarily due to strong adoption of cloud security products and Mandiant solutions. Management noted that the company continues to benefit from the heightened threat landscape, as the company uncovered numerous zero day exploits and threat actors over the course of the quarter.” Trebnick gives FEYE shares a $26 price target, suggesting a 30% upside on the one-year time frame and backing her Buy rating. (To watch Trebnick’s track record, click here.) The mixed news on FireEye has generated some mixed reviews from Wall Street, yet the bulls are still in control. The stock’s 6 recent ratings include 3 Buys, 2 Holds, and 1 Sell, making the analyst consensus view a Moderate Buy. The shares have an average price target of $24.50, which indicates a 23% upside potential from the trading price of $19.88. (See FireEye’s stock analysis at TipRanks.) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

  • Tesla Broke a 3-Day Losing Streak Last Week. Why It’s Dropping Again.

    A German news outlet reported that Tesla is going to need another six months to get its new German plant up and running. Shares of the electric-vehicle giant are down.

  • NYSE Eases Curbs; Australia’s Ban Backlash Grows: Virus Update

    (Bloomberg) -- The New York Stock Exchange will allow more traders on the floor if they’re fully vaccinated. The confirmed number of cases in the U.S. rose at the slowest pace in the week ended Sunday since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg.In Asia, India’s data is awaited as Prime Minister Narendra Modi resists pressure to lock down. Vietnam’s capital Hanoi is closing its schools from today, while Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte got his first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine, a Senator said. Hong Kong is isolating all residents of a building after finding a case. There is a widening backlash against Australia’s decision to ban citizens returning home from India.The Biden administration will support Pfizer’s move to start exporting U.S.-made doses of its vaccine, as the White House starts to boost U.S. production for shot-starved nations abroad. Emerging markets from Laos to Nepal have been reporting significant increases in infections in recent weeks.Key DevelopmentsGlobal Tracker: Cases top 153 million; deaths exceed 3.2 millionVaccine Tracker: More than 1.17 billion doses have been givenIt’s Not Just India. New Virus Waves Deluge Developing CountriesIndia Travel Ban Means U.S. Visa Workers Remain Stuck AbroadNew York City is roaring back to life, one year after its nadirWhat are vaccine passports and how would they work?: QuickTakeSubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on cases and deaths.India to Get 220 Million Serum Shots (9:55 a.m. Hong Kong)Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, will deliver 220 million doses to federal and state governments over the next few months. The central government will get 110 million of those doses of Covishield, the manufacturer said.“Vaccine manufacturing is a specialized process, it’s therefore not possible to ramp up production overnight,” CEO Adar Poonawalla said. Covering all of India’s 1.4 billion people is “not an easy task.”Earlier, Bloomberg News reported that the central government hasn’t placed an order larger than 110 million doses since sales started in December, citing a person familiar with the matter. The lack of a larger central stockpile, coupled with a devastating second wave which saw over 400,000 new daily cases on Saturday, is now making local state governments scramble and compete with one another in placing orders after Delhi turned over the responsibility of procuring vaccines to them last month.Philippines Expects Delay Due to India (9:40 a.m. Hong Kong)The Philippines expects its vaccine orders from India to be delayed or even reduced due to the virus surge in the South Asian nation. Vaccine shipments from India may arrive in September, according to Philippine vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, who earlier said the shots may be shipped starting this quarter. The Southeast Asian nation earlier this year signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India for 30 million doses of Novavax shots -- its biggest supply agreement to date.Hong Kong Isolates Some Tsim Sha Tsui Residents (9:20 a.m. Hong Kong)Hong Kong quarantined residents of a roughly 40-unit apartment building in Tsim Sha Tsui for 21 days after one of them was infected with the more transmissible N501Y mutant strain.The patient is a 28-year-old woman who visited India last month, the government said. She had been quarantined from April 4 to 25 at a Hong Kong hotel. On April 26, she sought medical advice at a local hospital, where she had a negative result on a Covid-19 test. On April 30, a test was indeterminate. She arranged to be admitted to hospital on May 2, when further tests found she was infected.The residents of her apartment building will be quarantined in government centers if they are asymptomatic, and treated in hospital if they have symptoms.Australian Backlash Grows Over India Ban (8:30 a.m. Hong Kong)Critics of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision to ban returning Australians from virus-ravaged India now include lawmakers from his own Liberal-National coalition government.Fiona Martin told the Guardian that her government’s weekend announcement that Australian citizens in India who try to return home would be liable for five years in prison and fines of about $50,000 was “heavy-handed”. Fellow government lawmaker Dave Sharma said of the ban, which is in place until at least May 15: “There is little doubt this is an extreme measure and that it is causing significant hardship to the Australian Indian community.”As of late March, there were 36,000 Australian citizens stranded overseas and seeking to come home, with about 9,000 of those in India. The ban represents a new, nativist low for the government, writes Bloomberg Opinion’s Daniel Moss.Duterte Gets Vaccine, Senator Says (8:20 a.m. Hong Kong)Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque administered the Sinopharm vaccine to President Duterte, Senator Go, a long-time aide of the president, said on Facebook.Sinopharm is a Chinese company, and Duterte late Monday defended China as still being a benefactor for the Philippines, denouncing “rude” comments by his own foreign affairs secretary about China’s behavior in the South China Sea.Myanmar to Administer 500,000 Sinopharm Doses (8:00 a.m. Hong Kong)Myanmar’s Ministry of Information said it is administering doses donated by China. The nation has been wracked by protests and deadly crackdowns by the armed forces since a military coup on Feb. 1.Vietnam Closes Schools in Hanoi (8:15 a.m. Hong Kong)Vietnam’s capital city instructed its two million school-age pupils to stay home and study online from May 4 onwards, as local authorities from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City imposed stiff crackdowns on public gathering sites in an effort to quickly contain a rise in local Covid-19 cases.Asian Developing Countries See Rise (7:50 a.m. Hong Kong)Nations ranging from Laos to Thailand in Southeast Asia, and those bordering India such as Bhutan and Nepal, have been reporting significant surges in infections in the past few weeks. The increase is mainly because of more contagious virus variants, though complacency and lack of resources to contain the spread have also been cited.“It’s very important to realize that the situation in India can happen anywhere,” Hans Kluge, the regional director at the World Health Organization for Europe, said in a briefing last week. “This is still a huge challenge.”Singapore Defers Non-Urgent Surgeries (7:30 a.m. Hong Kong)Singapore’s Ministry of Health asked hospitals to defer non-urgent surgeries and admissions until further notice, in a bid to increase potential capacity for handling Covid-19 patients.The measures include limiting emergency room visits only for life-threatening or other emergency conditions, and encouraging tele-consultations instead of in-person medical visits where possible. The city-state saw its first fatality due to complications from Covid-19 in nearly two months over the weekend.NYSE Says More Staff Can Return If Vaccinated (6:47 a.m. HK)The New York Stock Exchange is opening further to vaccinated traders.Companies whose staff are based at the exchange will be permitted to raise their headcount if 100% of employees at the site can prove they’re fully vaccinated, according to a memo from NYSE Chief Operating Officer Michael Blaugrund.The changes go into effect May 10 and are based on an “improvement to public health conditions in the New York City area and the continuing progress of the nationwide vaccination rollout,” Blaugrund wrote in the memo.FDA to Approve Pfizer Shot for Teens: NYT (5:20 p.m. NY)The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to authorize the use of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to children 12 to 15 years of age as early as next week, the New York Times reported.If the authorization is granted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel would likely meet the following day to review the clinical trial data and make recommendations for the vaccine’s use in adolescents, the newspaper said.Pfizer had reported that none of the adolescents in a clinical trial who received the vaccine developed symptomatic infections, a sign of significant protection.U.S. Trade Chief Discusses Vaccine IP (4:25 p.m. NY)U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai met virtually with World Intellectual Property Organization Director-General Daren Tang to discuss the role of intellectual property in dealing with the pandemic.They spoke about “specific challenges confronting developing countries, and the proposed waiver to certain provisions of the World Trade Organization’s agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights for the Covid-19 pandemic,” the USTR said in an emailed statement.Ohio Wants More Shots for Nursing Home Staff (4 p.m. NY)To combat vaccine hesitancy among nursing home workers Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Monday that he’d give caretakers’ noses a rest if they’d get the shot.Nursing home employees are currently required to receive Covid-19 tests twice weekly. But DeWine, a Republican, said a new order will exempt employees that are fully vaccinated.“We hope this change will be encouragement to those who work in nursing homes that haven’t been vaccinated yet,” DeWine said, cracking a smile during a remote news conference he held from his Cedarville home. “If you’re unvaccinated, it’s twice-a-week you’ll be tested.”The announcement followed a state health investigation into a Covid-19 outbreak in an Ohio veterans home where roughly half of the staff has declined vaccination, according to local reports. DeWine said that state health officials continue to make shots available for anyone working in or living in long-term care.White House Backs Pfizer Move on Exports (2:50 p.m. NY)The Biden administration will support Pfizer Inc.’s move to begin exporting U.S.-made doses of its coronavirus vaccine, as the White House starts to unleash U.S. production for shot-starved nations abroad.The governments of Mexico and Canada said last week that they expected to begin receiving doses of Pfizer’s vaccine from the U.S., the first time the company’s U.S.-made shots are known to have been delivered to any buyer other than the American government itself.N.J. Offers Free Beer for Shots (2:20 p.m. NY)NYC Subways Returning to 24-Hour Service (12:01 p.m. N Y)Most capacity restrictions will be lifted across the tri-state region on May 19, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.New York City will again have 24-hour subways, boosting transportation options for workers as the most populous U.S. city inches toward normalcy.In the state, the outdoor food and beverage curfew will be lifted May 17, and the indoor curfew will be lifted on May 31, Cuomo said Monday. The outdoor large stadium capacity will go to 33% in New York state on May 19, Cuomo said. However, New York will maintain the 6-foot (1.8-meter) social-distancing policy recommended by the federal government, the governor said.BioNTech Soars to Record (11:45 a.m. NY)BioNTech SE, the vaccine maker partnered with Pfizer Inc. on its Covid-19 shot, rose as much as 10% on Monday as the stock rallied past $200 a share at the open, breaking yet another record after closing at new highs four out of five days last week.The German company was among the top gainers as the biotech sector regained lost footing and optimism about economies reopening bolstered stocks. Shots from Pfizer and BioNTech as well as Moderna Inc. have helped the U.S. reach more than 245 million doses administered, while side-stepping some of the safety concerns that have arisen for shots from AstraZeneca Plcand Johnson & Johnson.WHO Urges Countries to Accept IP Waivers (11:30 a.m. NY)Vaccine production capacity needs to increase in order to have a significant inoculation rate that will bring herd immunity, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a media briefing, adding that’s why a waiver on intellectual property is very important. There are more countries joining South Africa and India in being in favor of an IP waiver, and he said he hopes other nations will be convinced as well to make that a reality.“There’s no reason, to be honest, not to decide on an IP waiver,” Tedros said. “The provision of waiving IP was meant for emergency conditions, and the level of emergency we’re in now is unprecedented. If we can’t use it now, when can we use it?”NYC Employees Return to Office (11:05 a.m. NY)More than 80,000 New York City public workers returned to the office on Monday, as the city asked all employees who had been working from home to return to city buildings. Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed back on concerns by the city’s largest municipal worker union, which said not enough of its workers had been vaccinated yet. Only 34% of its workforce has been vaccinated, according to DC37 Executive Director Henry Garrido. De Blasio also said 180,000 of the 300,000 city workforce has received at least one shot.U.S. Cases Rise at Slowest Pace of Pandemic (10:35 NY)Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. rose at the slowest pace since the pandemic began in the week ended Sunday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg. The 1.07% gain was below the previous record of 1.25% set in the seven days ended March 14.The total number of new infections increased by 344,448 last week, the lowest since the period ended Oct. 11, before the start of a surge intensified by the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons. The slowdown comes even as some states, such as Oregon, are experiencing outbreaks driven by variants of the virus.Germany’s Oktoberfest Canceled Again (10:30 a.m. NY)Authorities in Bavaria canceled Oktoberfest again this year. Oktoberfest is “the most global party,” and waiting longer to cancel it would only have caused more economic damage, Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder said on Monday. The beer festival drew 6.3 million people to Munich in 2019.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • UK's Arrival, Uber to develop electric ride-hailing 'Arrival Car'

    British electric van and bus maker Arrival will develop an electric car for Uber Technologies Inc that will go into production in late 2023, the two companies said on Tuesday. Arrival and Uber will also explore a strategic relationship in key markets, including the United Kingdom, European Union and United States. The "Arrival Car" will be an "affordable, purpose-built electric vehicle for ride-hailing," and will go into production in the fourth quarter of 2023, the companies said.

  • Why Ether is Soaring to New Highs

    Bitcoin, which was up 2%, has been trailing Ethereum on a relative basis, and now makes up less than half of the value of all cryptocurrencies.

  • Marine inspector general suspended amid tank sinking probe

    The Marine Corps inspector general, Major General Robert Castellvi, has been suspended amid the ongoing probes into last summer's fatal sinking of a seafaring tank off the Southern California coast, a newspaper reported Monday. Nine men died in the accident involving an amphibious assault vehicle July 30 near San Clemente Island. Castellvi becomes the highest-ranking officer to face discipline in the multiple investigations into the disaster, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

  • ‘Girl in the Bunker’ kidnapper who got 421 years in SC prison dies behind bars

    “He was a bad guy – as bad as you can get without killing anybody,” said former prosecutor Barney Giese of Vinson Filyaw, who kidnapped a 14-year-old Kershaw County girl and kept her in an underground bunker.

  • Bill and Melinda Gates: A life in pictures

    Images of the couple, who set up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, after they announce their divorce.

  • Dove Cameron: Why the former Disney star is one to watch in 2021

    With two TV shows, a movie and a pop career in the making, the former Disney star is one-to-watch.

  • Covid in Varanasi: Anger rises as coronavirus rages in Modi's constituency

    Many in Varanasi are asking where their MP - India's prime minister - is in their hour of need.

  • Inside the life of Bill Gates' daughter Jennifer, an elite equestrian who stands to inherit 'a minuscule portion' of her father's $130 billion fortune

    Bill Gates' eldest daughter, Jennifer, recently gave an interview discussing growing up enormously wealthy. Take a look inside her life.

  • Family was worried about man’s mental health before deadly North Carolina standoff

    The 32-year-old man had reportedly tried to attack his father days earlier.

  • Beyoncé and Jay-Z share rare photo of their entire family, and Blue Ivy is almost as tall as her mom now

    The "Already" singer and "Sorry Not Sorry" rapper shared a rare picture of them in matching outfits with their oldest daughter and twins Rumi and Sir.

  • What are the blood clots being caused by the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine? 4 questions answered

    The pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was lifted on April 23, 2021. SOPA Images/Light Rocket via Getty ImagesTwo vaccines – the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the U.S. and the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe – have been linked to an increased chance of a rare type of blood clot. Researchers are investigating what causes these clots and are starting to propose some answers. Dr. Mousumi Som, a professor of medicine at Oklahoma State University, explains what these rare clots are and how they are forming after people get vaccinated. 1. What are the blood clots? A small number of people in the U.S. have developed dangerous blood clots after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The clots have mostly been occurring in people’s brains and, paradoxically, are associated with low platelet counts. Normally, platelets help a person stop bleeding when they get injured. If you get a cut or have an injury, the body responds by sending platelets which act as a temporary patch. The patch attracts other platelets and they stick together to stop blood loss. Since platelets normally help the clotting process, this combination of low platelets and extreme clotting makes these clots medically unusual. These specific types of clots – called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis – although rare, affect around two to five people per million per year and are potentially life-threatening without treatment. Vaccines aren’t normally a trigger for this kind of clot. 2. Who is having these clots? As of April 24, 2021, out of the 8 million people vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the U.S., about 16 people have developed these blood clots. The clots occurred from six to 13 days after immunization, and the majority were in women between the ages of 18 and 48. On April 26, 2021, news reports indicated that at least one man had developed a clot. The man is in his 30s and was hospitalized from a clot in his leg about two weeks after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Health officials in Europe have also reported that the AstraZeneca vaccine – a COVID-19 vaccine authorized and approved in Europe but not in the U.S. – has caused about 200 cases of low-platelet clotting. Importantly, both the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the AstraZeneca vaccine use a type of harmless virus called an adenovirus to deliver instructions to the human body on how to build an immune response to COVID-19. This is called a viral vector vaccine. The fact that the both vaccines use a viral vector and both are associated with blood clots has led many health experts to think that the clotting issues of the two vaccines may share the same mechanism. 3. Why are women getting more clots than men? At this point, doctors still don’t know what makes women more susceptible than men, nor what puts a person at risk for these clots. These clots can occur, though rarely, in people who don’t get a vaccine. Scientists know that women are three times more likely to develop this type of clot without receiving the vaccine. Many researchers think this is because of birth control or other hormonal replacements that women take. 4. Why might the vaccines be causing blood clots? Researchers believe that this specific low-platelet clotting is similar to a reaction some individuals get when they receive a blood thinner called heparin, called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. Doctors sometimes use heparin to thin a person’s blood in the case of a heart attack or a blood clot when blood flow needs to be reestablished. But some people experience the opposite reaction, and their blood ends up clotting more instead. This happens because the body triggers an unwanted immune response after receiving heparin. In these patients, heparin attaches to a product released from platelets called platelet factor 4. When this happens, the immune system considers the combined platelet factor 4 and heparin a problem, so it creates antibodies in response. These antibodies attach to the heparin and platelet factor 4 complex, and the body – which now thinks it needs to repair an injury – causes more clotting while using up even more platelets. This results in the low platelet count seen in these patients. When doctors have looked at the blood of patients who developed clots after receiving the Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca vaccine, it looked very similar to the blood of people who have the low-platelet clotting reaction to heparin. This has led scientists and doctors to believe that the same process might be leading to these clots caused by the two vaccines.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Mousumi Som, Oklahoma State University. Read more:Restart of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine: A doctor explains why benefits far outweigh risksNo, vaccine side effects don’t tell you how well your immune system will protect you from COVID-19 Mousumi Som works fr the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. She has received funding from Eli Lilly and NIAID for drug related research on COVID treatments. She is affiliated with the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners and the Osteopathic Founders Foundation. .

  • Biden's Proposals Aim to Give Sturdier Support to the Middle Class

    Perhaps the most striking difference between the middle class of 50 years ago and the middle class today is a loss of confidence — the confidence that you were doing better than your parents and that your children would do better than you. President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar suite of economic proposals is aiming to both reinforce and rebuild an American middle class that feels it has been standing on shifting ground. And it comes with an explicit message that the private sector alone cannot deliver on that dream and that the government has a central part to play. “When you look at periods of shared growth,” said Brian Deese, director of Biden’s National Economic Council, “what you see is that public investment has played an absolutely critical role, not to the exclusion of private investment and innovation, but in laying the foundation.” Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times If the Biden administration gets its way, the reconstructed middle class would be built on a sturdier and much broader plank of government support rather than the vagaries of the market. Some proposals are meant to support parents who work: federal paid family and medical leave, more affordable child care, free prekindergarten classes. Others would use public investment to create jobs, in areas like clean energy, transportation and high-speed broadband. And a higher minimum wage would aim to buoy those in low-paid work, while free community college would improve skills. That presidents pitch their agendas to the middle class is not surprising given that nearly 9 out of 10 Americans consider themselves members. The definition, of course, has always been a nebulous stew of cash, credentials and culture, relying on lifestyles and aspirations as much as on assets. But what cuts across an avalanche of studies, surveys and statistics over the past half-century is that life in the middle class, once considered a guarantee of security and comfort, now often comes with a nagging sense of vulnerability. Before the pandemic, unemployment was low and stocks soared. But for decades, workers have increasingly had to contend with low pay, sluggish wage growth and more erratic schedules as well as a lack of sick days, parental leave and any kind of long-term security. At the same time, the cost of essentials like housing, health care and education have been gulping up a much larger portion of their incomes. The trend can be found in rich countries all over the world. “Every generation since the baby boom has seen the middle-income group shrink and its economic influence weaken,” a 2019 report from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation concluded. In the United States, the proportion of adults in the middle bands of the income spectrum — which the Pew Research Center defines as roughly between $50,000 and $150,000 — declined to 51% in 2019 from 61% 50 years ago. Their share of the nation’s income shrank even more over the same period, to 42% from 62%. Their outlook dimmed, too. During the 1990s, Pew found rising optimism that the next generation would be better off financially than the current one, reaching a high of 55% in 1999. That figure dropped to 42% in 2019. The economy has produced enormous wealth over the past few decades, but much of it was channeled to a tiny cadre at the top. Two wage earners were needed to generate the kind of income that used to come in a single paycheck. “Upper-income households pulled away,” said Richard Fry, a senior economist at Pew. Corrosive inequality was just the beginning of what appeared to be a litany of glaring market failures, like the inability to head off ruinous climate change or meet the enormous demand for affordable housing and health care. Companies often channeled profits to buy back stock instead of using them to invest or raise wages. The evidence was growing, liberal economists argued, that the reigning hands-off economic approach — low taxes on the wealthy; minimal government — was not producing the broad-based economic gains that sustained and grew the middle class. “The unregulated economy is not working for most Americans,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics. “The government has an important role,” he emphasized, in regulating the private sector’s excesses, redistributing income and making substantial public investments. Skeptics have warned of government overreach and the risk that deficit spending could ignite inflation, but Biden and his team of economic advisers have nonetheless embraced the approach. “It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom and middle out,” Biden said in his speech to a joint session of Congress last week, a reference to the idea that prosperity does not trickle down from the wealthy but flows out of a well-educated and well-paid middle class. He underscored the point by singling out workers as the dynamo powering the middle class. “Wall Street didn’t build this country,” he said. “The middle class built the country. And unions built the middle class.” Of course, the economy that lifted millions of postwar families into the middle class differed sharply from the current one. Manufacturing, construction and mining jobs, previously viewed as the backbone of the labor force, dwindled — as did the labor unions that aggressively fought for better wages and benefits. Now only 1 out of every 10 workers is a union member, while roughly 80% of jobs in the United States are in the service sector. And it is these types of jobs — in health care, education, child care, disabled and senior care — that are expected to continue expanding at the quickest pace. Most of them, though, fall short of paying middle-income wages. That does not necessarily reflect their value in an open market. Salaries for teachers, hospital workers, lab technicians, child care providers and nursing home attendants are determined largely by the government, which collects tax dollars to pay their salaries and sets reimbursements rates for Medicare and other programs. They are also jobs that are filled by significant numbers of women, African Americans, Latinos and Asians. “When we think about what is the right wage,” Stiglitz asked, “should we take advantage of discrimination against women and people of color, which is what we’ve done, or can we use this as the basis of building a middle class?” Biden’s spending plans — a $2.3 trillion infrastructure package called the American Jobs Plan and a $1.8 trillion American Families Plan that concentrates on social spending — aim to take account of just how much the workforce and the economy have transformed over the past half-century and where they may be headed in the next. The president’s economic team took inspiration from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the public programs that followed it. After World War II, for instance, the government helped millions of veterans get college educations and buy homes by offering tuition assistance and subsidized mortgages. It created a mammoth highway system to undergird commercial activity and funneled billions of dollars into research and development that was used later to develop smartphone technology, search engines, the human genome project, magnetic resonance imaging, hybrid corn and supercomputers. Biden, too, wants to fix roads and bridges, upgrade electric grids and invest in research. But his administration has also concluded that a 21st-century economy requires much more, from expanded access to high-speed broadband, which more than one-third of rural inhabitants lack, to parental leave and higher wages for child care workers. “We’ve now had 50 years of the revolution of women entering the labor force,” and the most basic necessities that make it possible for parents to fully participate in the workforce are still missing, said Betsey Stevenson, a professor at the University of Michigan and a former member of the Obama administration’s Council of Economic Advisers. She paused a few moments to take it in: “It’s absolutely stunning.” Right before the pandemic, more women than men could be found in paying jobs. Ensuring equal opportunity, Stevenson noted, includes “the opportunity to get high-quality early-childhood education, the opportunity to have a parent stay home with you when you’re sick, the opportunity for a parent to bond with you when born.” When it comes to offering this type of support, she added, “the United States is an outlier compared to almost every industrialized country.” The administration also has an eye on how federal education, housing and business programs of earlier eras largely excluded women, African Americans, Asians and others. In the Biden plan are aid for colleges that primarily serve nonwhite students, free community college for all, universal prekindergarten and monthly child payments. “This is not a 1930s model anymore,” said Julian Zelizer, a political science professor at Princeton University. And it is all to be paid for by higher taxes on corporations and the top 1%. Passage in a sharply polarized Congress is anything but assured. The multitrillion-dollar price tag and the prospect of an activist government have ensured the opposition of Republicans in a Senate where Democrats have the slimmest possible majority. But public polling from last year showed widening support for the government to take a larger role. “What is so remarkable about this moment is this notion that public investment can transform America, that these are things government can do,” said Felicia Wong, president of the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute. “This is fundamentally restructuring how the economy works.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company

  • Customer beating man with gun at bar accidentally kills own relative, Texas cops say

    A Texas shooting suspect killed his family member while beating another man with a gun, officials say.

  • Texas gang member called ‘Terror’ convicted of killing teen witness gets life in prison

    He is a member of MS-13, one of the world’s most violent street gangs.