Investor Watch: February 08, 2024

NEWS DIGEST

Amkor brings a $2 billion project to Peoria, Arizona; BETA technologies aims to develop all-electric aircraft in Plattsburgh; the states with the largest minimum wage increases; high-speed rail funds land in California; Weyerhaeuser’s plans in Shreveport; Timmons Group brings a $50 million HQ to Chesterfield, Virginia.

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A skier looks out before dropping in from atop Jay Peak, abutting the Canadian border in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

Archive photo courtesy of Everett Freeman, Everett Freeman Visual Productions

When I wrote a life sciences newsletter story called “Let It Snow” nearly nine years ago about EB-5 funds bringing a new wave of biosciences investment to the ski area of Jay Peak in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, I knew about the EB-5 program’s past vulnerability to fraud. But I didn’t know I was getting snowed a bit myself. The New Yorker’s Sheelah Kolhatkar this week dug into the full story. One thing is certain: While some development plans there may have turned into a hole in the ground, a highly skilled skier this week told me the skiing and amenities present today at Jay Peak are among the best in New England. — Adam Bruns

West Virginia Senate President Craig Blair, who serves as the 2023-2024 Council of State Governments, Southern Region (CSG South) Chair, announced his 2024 Chair’s Initiative: Permitting Reform. With the West Virginia Legislature’s passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution 16 last month, he called on other state leaders to do the same. “Our goal is to light a fire under our colleagues at the federal level and lead by example by passing bipartisan resolutions all over this country urging good faith work across the aisle on this critical issue,” said Blair in a release. “This permitting reform federal affairs initiative draws attention to the overly regulated, slow-moving federal permitting processes that inhibit economic development, job growth, energy innovation and the ability of states to update aging infrastructure.”

A survey conducted by CSG South in the fourth quarter of 2023 found permitting reform to be the top issue of interest to leaders in the 15 states comprising the CSG South region.

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Photo by Thomas Senf courtesy of Mammut Sports Group AG

This image of the Aletsch Glacier — the largest and longest glacier in the Alps — was made by Thomas Senf as part of Mammut Sports Group’s “Together for Glaciers” program, a movement “to raise awareness about how we can influence the reduction of emissions and the rate of melting glaciers.” The outdoor clothing company founded in 1862 in Switzerland today operates in around 40 countries and employs around 800 people.