June 21, 2026 • 58 mins
On today’s program, we speak with Justin Evans, editor and founder of a South Shore AI generated news site. We’ll also get the very latest on new legislation on Beacon Hill aimed to protect victims of domestic violence at their workplace. We’ll sort through the top headlines from the Boston Business Journal this week. We will examine new cryptocurrency legislation under consideration in Washington DC. And finally, Aaron Pressman of The Boston Globe will take us on an electric airplane designed for midsize airlines.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe Shortsleeve
and Kim Carragan, a weekly roundup and discussion of the
top business news impacting our New England economy.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
And good morning and welcome to the New England Business Report.
Joe shorts lived here with Kim Kerrigan.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
It is Sunday, June.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The twenty first Summer twenty twenty six is underway.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yes, it began at four twenty four a m. So
summer is just a few hours old.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And we actually find Kim Kerrigan out there skipping through
the daisies right now.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Well, Joe, I was actually up at four am trying
to make an egg stand on its end, you know,
the solstice, but it didn't work. So I should have
gone to bed earlier.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
But we'll be that as it may.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Now you know what that means. It means that right now,
our sunrise is five eleven a m. Of course, Kim,
you're already up and out the door by then, and
sunset is eight twenty three, so that already in.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Bed by bed.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
That's a fifteen hours in fifteen minutes of daylight.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Yeah, it's great, it's great. I love it.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, I am to tell you what happens. Do I
need to tell you what happens next week?
Speaker 6 (01:09):
Now?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (01:09):
No, do not, fine, do not say it.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I am an early riser, and I do have to
say I see that. I do see those sunrises, and
it makes getting up early easier to do, you know,
because it's there's light in the sky at a little
after four, which is crazy.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
So but I love this time of year, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Have you been watching World Cup?
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Well, you know I have watched. I have watched minutes
of it. I have an issue with a game that
I don't know how long it's going to be.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
I don't get that. Just don't get extra time.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
What do they call it?
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Is that who knows how long it's going to be?
I can't figure it.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Out, you know, Yeah, nobody seems to know.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
I certainly have been watching, though all the excitement around
it it is. It really is fun to watch, how
dead it all of the fantasy.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
No, I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I have
to tell you I found myself watching, and I do
think the games are more exciting than I thought they
would be.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
So absolutely there you get that.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Hey, Today's program, how about this story, Kim, This is
something that you know is right up our alley.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
We're gonna be talking with Justin Evans.
Speaker 7 (02:20):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
He is the founder and editor of south Shore News. Okay,
and did you see the story in the Boston Global
story written by Aidan Ryan, a south Shore AI generated
news site put up a paywall. Hundreds of readers, including
a police chief, open their wallets, so you know, apparently
it's one guy running this news site and it's profitable.
(02:44):
So you saw the story, obviously, Kim I.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Did, Yes, Yes, I am here to tell you the
days of journalists.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
They're very quickly dwindling, aren't they.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Oh my?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
And it's interesting you read through the article on how
he does this and how he lays it out and
how he uses AI and all those various applications.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Well, we'll be talking.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
We'll be talking with Justin Evans, who's smiling ear to
ear in just a few moments, okay, and then we
have we're going to talk a little bit about domestic
abuse survivors and what workplaces can do to make them
feel safer or actually be safer. Talking about legislation that's
currently underway up there on Beacon Hill and Act relative
(03:27):
to and Employment protections for victims of abusive behavior, just like,
for example, it would be a victim of stalking who
needs a parking space closer to the work entrance or
in a wellded area, or a phone number change that
type of things workplaces can do to help these folks.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Yeah, if this law passes, it certainly will have an
impact on the business community. Interesting, and so Andrea Kramer,
and attorney who's kind of spearheaded this legislation, is going
to join.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Us in the second half of the show.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
We are going to be joined by the BBJs Hannah Green,
and she's going to talk about some of the top
headlines this past week, one of them being that I
thought was really interesting. In the midst of all of
this World Cup stuff going on down at Boston Stadium
better known to most of us as Jillette Stadium, the
Craft Group is suing Foxborough. Now it doesn't actually have
(04:23):
anything to do with the current situation down their World Cup,
but you know, you sort of think of the Craft
Group being so simpatico with Foxborough, but maybe that's not
exactly the case. So she's going to explain that to us.
We're also going to discuss the clarity Act. It is
moving through Congress in Washington, d C. It's legislation that
(04:46):
will have an impact on guard railing cryptocurrency, but the
real impact may be at your local community banks. So
we're going to talk to president and CEO of Bank
five Antiguan about how all that might impact some local banks.
And then finally, would you fly in a battery operated airplane?
Speaker 5 (05:08):
No, there it's done.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
There's no air conditioning either, and there's no air conditioning
well the globes. Aaron Pressman did just that. He's talked
to us about the experience and what these battery operated
airplanes are all about.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
All right, Kim, So without further ado, we've been chatting
about this. Let's go Welcome Justin Evans of the program.
He's the founder and editor of south Shore News, an
AI generated news site.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Hello, we were wondering if Kim.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I are wondering, what's going to happen to our jobs?
What's gonna Justin, welcome to the program. So tell us
about this venture, tell us about south Shore News and
this AI generated news site.
Speaker 8 (05:54):
So, so south Shore News is really not trying to
replace journalism. I hope both of your job they're still Okay.
What I'm doing is taking public access recordings of government
meetings and summarizing them as local news stories. So it's
a way, particularly on the South Shore where we're in
a bit of a news desert, for locals to know
(06:17):
what's going on at their town halls.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
And justin.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
The interesting thing about this is that it is it's
becoming so popular that you have put up a paywall
and you've got subscribers.
Speaker 9 (06:31):
I do. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (06:32):
So I ran it for almost two years as a
public service for free, really more of an experiment in
my own mind to see if we could work. And
then I decided this April to see if you know,
considering that it worked, to see if people be willing
to pay for it.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
All right, So take us through this, because I mean
I had to, I really had to figure out, you know,
how this all works. Okay, and take us from soup
to notts. So what are you doing every day in
order to get this to you know, folks at their homes?
Speaker 8 (07:01):
So I am yeah, from the beginning. So you know,
a local school committee has a meeting, most of their
you know, local cable access channels put those recordings on
YouTube or on their websites. Or some other place online.
I find that recording, use an AI tool to create
a transcript of it, use a different AI tool to
summarize that transcript into a meeting compared against my you know,
(07:24):
list of the superintendents and school committee members like board members,
all of the names of the people in that area,
some of the history of what's been going on in
the district, and that summarized news article I edit, so
there is a human touch on every article, just to
verify basic facts and stuff, and then I will schedule
(07:45):
it to run sometime, usually within a week, so you know,
for me, most of the work is done.
Speaker 9 (07:49):
On the weekend. I still have a day job, but I'm.
Speaker 8 (07:51):
Able to schedule out a week's worth of meetings to
automatically publish on substack every day. You know.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Obviously, as we said, there's a put up a paywall,
and now you can get people to pay for it.
Give us a sense though, of what the response to
it has been. Why is it that people are so
attracted to this idea, and.
Speaker 8 (08:11):
So I think it's it's in part because of the
decline of local news. So where we used to have
a lot of weekly local papers in towns or regions
all over the state. There's mostly just a couple of
you know, large national organizations that may own some of
these local papers. You know, Situate Mariner, for example, is
owned by the USA Today Network, but they don't really
(08:33):
send reporters.
Speaker 9 (08:34):
To the sole lifeboard meetings, to the school committee meetings.
Speaker 8 (08:37):
They're republishing national stories with occasional local stuff, and so
there's not in a lot of towns. There's still some
you know, the Hingham and cohaesat Anchor still doing a
great job, Dustbury Clippers still doing a great job. But
for a lot of these towns, there isn't another place
to find out what's going on in your town hall,
on your school committee. And there are a lot of
(08:58):
stories still happening here. So you know, most of my
paying subscribers at least are either themselves government officials, former
government officials, people that lived in this world and want
to keep up with what's going on. I think that's
where I've found the most traction.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Well, we're talking with Justin Evans, who's the founder and
editor of south Shore News, an AI generated news site,
and we read about this in the Boston Globe article
by Aidan Ryan, a South shore AI generated news site
put up a paywall. Hundreds of readers, including a police chief,
opened their wallets. Let's talk about that business side if
we could adjustin how do the dollars work?
Speaker 8 (09:33):
So you know, the basic subscription is eight dollars a month,
and that covers nineteen towns, you know, at least all
of the select board, town council and school committeeings, depending
on your government structure. And then there'll be you know,
I run occasional deep dives on Saturdays with you know,
election results when town elections happen. And then if something
(09:54):
interesting happens. There was a couple months of really bizarre
happenings on the Rockland Border health I covered that, so
that you know, eight dollars a month gets you access
to all of those the you know, there's an annual
discount eighty dollars for the for the year, basically two
months free. And then group rates and the group rates
have been more popular among municipal organizations or quasi municipal organizations,
(10:17):
where there are people who it's important to know not
necessarily what your town is doing, but what your neighboring
towns are doing, what other school districts are doing so
you can keep up.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Yeah, sure, so justin I recognize that, you know, you're
doing these these meetings, you know, and it's sort of
local government that you're covering.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
But what's the possibility that you might take this.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Further and where you're going all with this?
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yeah, you might go out and start to you know,
record other kinds of events and then let AI transcribe
those and so on and so forth.
Speaker 8 (10:52):
I don't think I plan on doing that, but I
certainly think other people will plan on doing that. I
think that this technology is here to stay, and you know,
for sake of numbers, I'll stick to a government meeting.
But I covered a Plymouth special town meeting using AI software.
Speaker 9 (11:09):
It probably took me.
Speaker 8 (11:10):
A half an hour to review the transcript, view the article,
edit the article, maybe even forty five minutes. But a link,
you know, that is a longer period of time for me.
Speaker 9 (11:19):
To do this. But it was an eight hour special.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Town meeting that the Plymouth Independent sent.
Speaker 9 (11:23):
Two reporters to.
Speaker 8 (11:25):
And just looking at the cost of covering this news,
their article is better by far. They had the contact
of the nuance of what's going.
Speaker 9 (11:32):
On in the room.
Speaker 8 (11:33):
But just if you want to know what the outcome
of that meeting was.
Speaker 9 (11:37):
The AI tools were able to do it. So I
do think that this is this is here to stay.
Speaker 8 (11:42):
And even if I'm not the one branching out into
other recordings to follow this process, I think somebody will.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, so justin it all sounds like it's very good
news at this point. But what's the hardest part for
you or what's the hardest part for this business model?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
What are the problems?
Speaker 8 (12:01):
I think for me it is, you know, the editing
is the thing I would like to solve more. And
I don't think that it's that's going to be something
that I automate. I think that that is something that
I'll hire a professional. You know, I'm an engineer. I'm
not a journalist. I think that if business goes well enough,
I'm going to bring in an editor to do what
they do best and get the confirmed that you know,
(12:21):
the street names and all these Southshort towns are spelled correctly,
and that the meeting votes are going the way that
it the transcript interprets it is. There are still AI hallucinations,
there are still mistakes that I have to catch before
they go out.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
For example, I'm trying to think of what is.
Speaker 9 (12:39):
A good recent example.
Speaker 8 (12:41):
Uh, you know, speaker identification is probably the most common issue.
If it's just it's converting a meeting into text. If
you don't know which mark in the room is being addressed,
or which person is the one making the motion or speaking,
that's sometimes important. Or things like if someone is voting
(13:01):
to you know, open a public hearing or close a
public hearing, you know, does.
Speaker 9 (13:06):
The AI software believe that they.
Speaker 8 (13:08):
Are voting to approve the underlying measure? So there's like
little government nuances that I still have to catch, and
there's strange things there. But I'll say that over the
last years the software has gotten a lot better, and
I'm mostly using commercially available products, the large language models
that anyone has access to.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Is there a cost there for you there?
Speaker 8 (13:27):
I mean obviously, oh yeah, I'm sending probably I think
I send in the globe.
Speaker 9 (13:32):
But close to two.
Speaker 8 (13:33):
Thousand dollars a year between subscription costs, token costs for
some of the more software based stuff I'm doing. But
that you know, two thousand dollars a year, I've got
three hundred and sixty some odd subscribers paying in about
thirty seven hundred total, So the profit margin is there,
(13:53):
and I'm probably pretty close to the point where i
could afford to bring in an editor and get some
of this work off my desk.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
My final question, do you justin is this any pushback
from the community or from the people who are sitting
on all these boards and in all these meetings.
Speaker 8 (14:08):
There definitely is some pushback. Most of it is just
on the general why is AI doing this covering these meetings?
You know, when there are errors in timing, if you know,
sometimes the planning board meets one night, the zoning board
another night, and then the select board meets, and the
votes change throughout that process and my article runs a
week later.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
Some of that gets out of place.
Speaker 8 (14:31):
So there are definitely shortcomings to the way that I'm
doing it, and most of the way that I've been
sharing these stories, a lot of my growth, you know,
prior to the Boston Globe article has been on community.
Speaker 9 (14:42):
Facebook pages because that's where people.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
Are going for their local news apps and newspapers right now,
and that invites all kinds of Facebook pushback that I
think anybody would get.
Speaker 10 (14:52):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Sure, justin the final a lot of question for me,
are you delighted?
Speaker 11 (14:55):
With this.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Do you wake up every morning and go woo, who
look at I did?
Speaker 9 (15:01):
This has been really thrilling.
Speaker 8 (15:03):
You know. I came at this as a problem that
I thought AI could solve, not really a business.
Speaker 9 (15:07):
Yeah, and the business has grown around the solution, so
that is is really exciting.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well, congratulations to you and yeah, and thank you very
much for Justin Evans for joining us on the New
England Business Support.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Kim. Yeah, our days are numbered, Kim. I don't know.
We'll just keep plugging away, cowing off.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
We're gonna we talk about the legislation on Bacon Hill
and it has to do with businesses can do better
to protect victims of domestic violence. Stay with us.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w r KO six 't eighty
Joe and Kim will be right back.
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Hi.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I'm Joe Shortzleeve, host of the New England Business Report
on WRKO. I recently said down with Mike Marshall of
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Speaker 3 (17:02):
Here's what he shared.
Speaker 11 (17:03):
Well.
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You need to build a formal retirement income plan. The
(17:25):
last thing you want to do is run out of money.
If you are not working with a professional team of advisors,
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Speaker 5 (17:59):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part
of the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Welcome back everyone to the New England Business Report. So
good to have you with us on this Father's Day. Joe,
it's Father's Day.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
It's just been showered in gifts. Here and appreciation.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Again, back up the truck, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Listen, we're gonna change gears from our laughing at Joe's
Father's Day, which I'm sure, by the way, we're laughing,
but I'm sure it's probably true. But talk a little
bit about domestic violence, and as strange here on a
business show as this may be, domestic violence is a
workplace issue. And our next guest is going to explain that.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
That, of course is according to our next guest.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
It's also according to organizations like Employers Against Domestic Violence.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
And right now there's a.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Bill, it's called the Protected at Work Bill that is
up on Beacon Hill. It's being discussed. You know, by
all accounts it is universally supported, but it just can't
quite get that momentum. It needs to get over the
finish line and become law. They're hoping that that is
the case very soon. Let's learn a little bit more
about this. Joining us now is Boston based attorney Andre Kramber. Andrew,
(19:37):
it's great to have you with us. First thing I
want you to do, if you will, is explain to
our business audience why domestic violence has any impact on them.
Speaker 7 (19:46):
Certainly and thank you so much for having me and
for highlighting this important issue. There is at least three
reasons why this is a business issue, but at bottom,
it comes down to this, whether employers know it or not,
they have victims in their workplace. The statistics are that
one in four women is going to experience domestic violence
in her work life. And if you look at an
(20:10):
employer of fifty, they're going to have people there at
various times who are victims of domestic violence. And I
am using the term victims instead of survivors. It's the
way it's seen in the legal world. I also refer
to them as survivors sometimes. So the reason so, besides
the shared numbers, why does it matter, Well, it matters
(20:32):
because it comes into the workplace. It affects an employee's
productivity there, it affects it affects their coworkers. And the
reality is, and it might be counterintuitive for an advocate
to be pointing this out, it can bring violence into
the workplace, but ignoring it doesn't make any of that
(20:52):
go away, and firing somebody doesn't make any of that
go away. The way to deal with it is head on.
So that's why it's a workplace issue.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
All right, give us an idea of what this legislation,
if passed, would do in specific circumstances.
Speaker 7 (21:07):
So, the first thing this bill does is it prevents
discrimination against victims of domestic violence. And so what does
that mean discrimination? It means not hiring somebody because they're
a victim, or firing somebody because there's a victim because
they're a victim. You might think, well, why would somebody
ever do that. Well, sometimes they do it based on stereotypes.
(21:27):
More often they do it because of beliefs about safety
in the workplace. If I get rid of that one person,
my workplace will be safe, and that's not actually true.
Marion Ryan, the District Attorney of Middlesex, puts it best.
She says, so you get rid of that first person,
which by the way, doesn't necessarily mean the abuser is
not going to come and commit violence. But what happens
(21:49):
with the second and third and fourth person. They're not
going to come tell you that they're victims because they're
going to be afraid to lose their jobs.
Speaker 9 (21:54):
And then you can't protect yourself.
Speaker 7 (21:56):
The best way for the employer to try to protect
add safety in the workplace is to have an open
and honest conversation with a victim and then bring in
law enforcement, which is why law enforcement likes this still
as well. The second thing it does is it has
employers provide what we call reasonable accommodations, which employers do
(22:17):
in any number of other ways, and this actually helps employers.
It helped because by working with a victim, they can
keep the person and this adds retention and it actually
could become a way, you know, to recruit better. But
let's just stick on retention, right, And if a person
(22:38):
is going through a short period of a bad time
in their life, rather than getting rid of that person
or that person leaving because of the domestic violence that person,
the employer could work with the worker to make accommodations
and then that person's there and probably there longer and
more loyally.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
And what is the status of the legislation right now, Andrea,
the likelihood of the passage?
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Well, Kim got it exactly right. It has broad based support,
it has gone through the three steps it needs to
in the House, and now it's just waiting to be
put on the calendar to be voted on, brought to
the floor of the House. Then it'll go through the
same process over in the Senate. It has already cleared
the hurdle in one committee. We're pretty sure it would
(23:24):
get through all the hurdles, and then it would be
voted on the floor for the Senate and then signed
by the Governor, who is supportive of the bill. I
have spoken with her and people on her staff.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Andrea, I know that this has passed in a number
of other states. I've also noticed that it's been endorsed
by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts as well as the
Massachusetts Restaurant Association. So what should businesses do to help
to push this over the finish line there on Beacon Hill.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
Wonderful and thank you for asking. They should reach out
to the Speaker of the House, Speaker of Ron Mariano,
and tell him that they want this to come up
for a vote. You know, businesses, clearly, you know, are
in business to make money, but they're also run by
human beings who care about other human beings, and in
(24:13):
that respect, businesses have a large role to play in
helping with the scourge of domestic violence. They can help
identify victims, help make a workplace where victims can come forward,
help support them at one of the most vulnerable times
in their lives and help the workers around them who
(24:34):
also experience stress because of their coworker, their colleague whom
they care about. So just even on a human level
besides the bottom line, this is something most businesses care
about because the human beings and the business care about
it absolutely.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Andrea Kramer, thank you very much for updating us on
this situation. And again, it's protected at work is this legislation.
So if you are a business owner and you want
to get behind the legislation, as you just heard, calling
the Speaker's office is an important step in pushing it
over the finish line. When we come back, headlines from
(25:15):
the Boston Business Journal, and we'll also be talking about
flying in a battery operated airplay.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Keim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy. When they return.
Speaker 13 (25:32):
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It's gonna be a super little set.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I'm Joe Shortzleeve, host of the New England Business Report
on WRKO. I recently sat down with Mike Marshall of
Martial Wealth Management.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Here's what he shared.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Well.
Speaker 15 (26:41):
With a three to five year time horizon before retirement,
the focus shifts totally from accumulating the assets who optimizing,
protecting and transitioning the assets. At this point where you're
so close to retirement, every decision you make now will
directly affect your income, taxes, your income and your legacy.
You need to build a formal retirement income plan. The
(27:02):
last thing you want to do is run out of
money if you are not working with a professional team
of advisors and you yourself are accountable for the results.
At Martial Wealth, we make ourselves accountable for the results
of our clients.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
If you're serious about protecting your estate and building retirement income,
I suggest you call Mike today eight five, seven, three, four,
two ten thirty or Martialwealth dot Com.
Speaker 16 (27:23):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member
Fin SIPC, Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and
the above firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Welcome back everyone to the New England Business Report. Great
to have you with us on this Sunday morning. Quick reminder,
Aaron Pressman from the Boston Globe will be with us
this half hour. He's going to tell us about his
experience flying an electric battery operated airplane up in Vermont.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Buckle up.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Yeah, battery and airplane do not go together for me.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Joe. I just need you to know that.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
This is the time when we like to check some
headlines that maybe you missed this past week and here's
one that I absolutely love.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Is we get ready to celebrate America's two hundred and
fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
What says Americana more than a good fried apple pie?
And by the way, McDonald's is bringing it back.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
They announced this past week. Joe, first question is this.
Did you know it was gone?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
I did not know it was gone, but I can
tell you growing up, I was a fan and.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
They had a blueberry pie. Really, oh yes they did.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Well, let me tell you this what you're going to
probably be very surprised about. You Actually, when you were
eating your blueberry pie or your apple pie, you weren't
eating the fried version. They put the fried version out
very early, and then they made the determination that, you know,
it was too expensive to make, so they figured out
how to make a baked version that people thought was fried.
(29:06):
But the crazy part is that the baked version actually
had more calories than the fried version. But now in
this day and age, they are able to bring back
the actual fried version. So just in time for America's
two hundred and fiftieth birthday. Lo and behold, there's that
lovely fried tree coming back.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
So we can all rest a little easier tonight. All right, Kim.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Of course, the business news that we follow every week,
a lot of it comes from the Boston Business Journal.
This morning, we're going to be joined by their life
science reporter, Hannah Green. Hannah, thanks very much for taking
time in joining us on this Sunday morning, first day
of summer. Here talk about some of the headlines that
have happened this past week, and World Cup soccer seems
(29:56):
to be what we all like to talk about.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Here's a headline.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Craft Group sues Foxborough over abuse of the state licensing system. Huh,
what's going on there, Hannah?
Speaker 11 (30:09):
Yes, you may remember this is perhaps not the first
battle between the Craft Group and Foxborough. The latest installment
of this is now the Craft Group and the Patriots
are saying that the town of Foxborough is charging them
almost one million dollars for a license fee that should
be about one hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Well, that is true, I guess they would have reason
to sue. Yeah, So, so explain to us, you know
why now, why have they suddenly you put that together?
Speaker 5 (30:40):
And what does the town of Foxborough say about that?
Speaker 11 (30:43):
Yeah, the town is saying that they put in new
provisions this year for the entertainment license fee that the
Craft Group needs to host events sports events at Chillette Stadium.
Every year they say they're putting in new provisions to
cover things like public safety and other municipal services that
are needed to support events that are being held at Gillette.
Usually this fee is about one hundred dollars Craft Sports
(31:06):
and Entertainment, and the Patriots are now suing the town.
They're saying that the entertainment license fee under state law
is not supposed to be more than one hundred dollars,
so this is, as you said, quite a jump up
almost one dollars.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
I remember in our news from a Channel four when
people were suggesting stories that we cover, our news director
would look at us and.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Say, yeah, so what why do we care about this?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
And I guess I'm looking at this and going, okay,
so what's it play here? Then Hannah, is there any
so what what happens?
Speaker 11 (31:36):
I think this speaks to the again that kind of
continued tussling between the Craft Group and Foxborough and the town.
You may remember earlier this year, before the World Cup
even started, the town was threatening to withhold the license
needed to host the matches at Gillette unless the Craft
Group paid for security costs. So if this continues, there
(31:58):
could be future issues with license is being able to
host games. You never know where it could go, but
discontinued fighting is definitely not what either side probably wants
to see in terms of being able to host events
and have the economic opportunity from those events coming to town.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
You know, it's so interesting because the Craft Group needs
Foxborough and Foxborough needs the Craft Group, so it's.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
An interesting just get along.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, it's an interesting dynamic to say the least, that's
for sure. Another story that you guys covered this week
which I thought was interesting is trip Advisor is selling
their restaurant reservation platform. The name of that is the Fork,
and it's really big overseas. They're selling it to American Express.
Speaker 11 (32:42):
Why trip Advisor has been kind of going through an
interesting period, I would say recently they had a activist
investor get involved in the company called Starboard Value, and
one of the things they'd been pushing for is a
sale of the Fork, in addition to other things like
integrating AI more into the company. I would say the
Fork is the revenue has been growing from this business
(33:05):
for trip Advisor, but it's not one of its biggest
business segments. So I think, you know, the activist investor
has been pushing them to offload things that are perhaps
not key to driving revenue for trip Advisor at this time.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Where do we where do folks use the fork and
and and how does it? How does it work?
Speaker 11 (33:22):
You know, it's very big in Europe, and it's an
electronic reservation booking system, and so that trip Advisor's other
two business segments are more in experiences and and other
things rather than restaurant focused.
Speaker 5 (33:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
It's so interesting though, because you would think that would
do well for them, because people do use trip Advisor
when planning trips overseas. So interesting America expresses, let us
have it seven hundred is it?
Speaker 5 (33:52):
What are they selling? Seven hundred million dollars?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (33:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Let's talk a little bit about the new landlord, if
you will, in Boston for one of the big life
science campuses.
Speaker 11 (34:05):
Yeah, Tishman Spire has now taken over management and leasing
for this really large two building life science and office
campus in the South End. This building is owned by
BioMed Realty. They bought it twenty twenty one, kind of
when the biotech boom was really taking off in the
Boston area. At that time it was just supposed to
be an office building, but they decided to convert one
(34:27):
of the buildings into labs and keep the other as
an office building, and now Tishman is going to take
over leasing it and managing the space.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
We're talking with a Hannah Green. She's a life science
reporter with the Boston Business Journal. We're talking about the
headlines this week, you know, and I know there's another
headline we want to touch upon here, but I'd like
to hear a little bit about you and your job
and what's on your desk every day. Give us an
idea of what a day in the life of Hannah
Green is there at the BBJ.
Speaker 11 (34:53):
Sure, I cover life sciences, medtech, biotech companies essentially any
sort of company that's operating in the Massachusetts area that's
making drugs, making medical devices, everything from brand new startups
to some of the largest pharma companies that have a
presence here in Massachusetts. So you know, gsk Eli, Lilly
(35:15):
of Artists, all those companies down to you know, a
new Cambridge startup spinning out of Harvard or MIT.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
And do you make your own decision about what you cover,
or is Doug Banks coming into the room and you know,
stopping his foot and saying, Hannah, let's go.
Speaker 11 (35:29):
It's a collective effort.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
So you're admitting that happens. That's funny.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
And Hannah, let me ask you about that sector. How
is it doing, because that's an important sector to this
area of the country.
Speaker 11 (35:45):
Yeah. Yeah, Massachusetts and the Boston area is a huge
biotech hub, not just in the US but globally. The
last two years have have been challenging. There's been a
lot of layoffs. Funding has kind of receded a bit
so far this year though, people seem to be a
bit more optimistic in the industry seems to be doing
(36:05):
a lot better. One of those measures we look at
is companies going public in the Boston area. Last year,
there were only two kind of Massachusetts linked biotechs that
went public. So far this year we've already had eight,
and one of those is the biggest biotech ipa we've
ever seen. So it's it's definitely improving in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
So far, great, great.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Thank Another headline from the BBJ, en Gine slashes staff
by fifty percent to preserve cash ahead of regulatory push.
Take us inside this Hannah, I.
Speaker 11 (36:41):
Know, I just said things are getting better, but everything.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Has not always never mind what I just said.
Speaker 11 (36:49):
You know again kind of especially the last few years,
cash has been a bit more tight for companies, and
so you know when you maybe perhaps had a bit
more flexibility in the past to pivot or wait out
for data, Now companies maybe need to make some changes
to their workforce to cut costs in order to make
it to that point where they can get data and
(37:09):
get it to approval. So the company did lay off
fifty percent of its workforce, about forty employees, in the
hope that it will be able to bring a bladder
cancer gene therapy to approval.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Any chance that they are going to bring those people
back after they bring that drug to market, it could happen.
Speaker 11 (37:30):
I think. You know, once you start thinking about shifting
to becoming a commercial company, there is certainly new hiring
that happens there. Sometimes it's in a different area, folks
more focused on commercial and sales versus I'm guessing some
of these folks are more research and development, and we're
working on other potential drugs for the company. But you know,
(37:50):
if this comes to market, the company starts making money.
There would certainly be new hiring that would be happening,
all right.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
And she's a Hannah Green, she's a life science reporter
with the Boston Business Journal. And we do appreciate you
taking time in joining us on the first day of
summer here on this Sunday morning.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Well, Joe, the Clarity Act, this is something that lawmakers
have been looking at and the goal of it is
to create federal guard rails when it comes to the
cryptocurrency industry. It would allow third party platforms to offer
interest like rewards for investors to directly compete with banks.
(38:26):
So here to talk to us more about the impact
this act could have on local community banks is in Tangan.
She's the president and CEO of Bank five, headquartered in
Fall River and and it's great to have you.
Speaker 10 (38:40):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Absolutely Well, maybe you could give us a brief overview
of what these federal guard rails would look like.
Speaker 10 (38:49):
Yes, So, the Genius Act, which was passed back in
July of twenty twenty five, really put the guardrails in
place for uh these stable coins, and when they realized
they needed more clarity, they then said, okay, you have
a year uh to UH to bring more clarity around
(39:12):
who's going to regulate, how it will be regulated, and
what are the are there the ability to pay interest
or rewards on these stable coin accounts. So the Clarity
Act was meant to do just what it says, clarify
some of the rules. So the the OCC is the
regulator UH for these UH stable coins, which are essentially
(39:37):
cryptocurrencies that are a US dollar base. So when we
think about what this means when they're you're holding UH
US dollars or US equivalent dollars in a cryptocurrency account.
It provides the ability to make payments around the world.
It allows instant payments, i would say, and it was
(40:00):
first developed to be a payment service. So the nice
part about it is the ease of use, the ease
of settlement around the world. It has a lot of
benefits for maybe a commercial customer that's doing business around
the world. And the worry that banks had is are
they using the same rules that banks have to safeguard
(40:22):
for money laundering and fraud and making sure that those
rules apply across the board with these stable coin accounts.
That's the crusts of it.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Yeah, I'm talking with Nantangan president's CEO of Fall River,
a headquartered a bank five. They've got some seventeen locations.
She's been in that position since twenty twenty. Okay, talk
to us about both sides of this issue, if you could,
and the good the bad.
Speaker 10 (40:46):
So the good is creating the guardrails and creating a
level playing fields between banks and these new FinTechs. And
banks aren't against innovation. We love innovations not We're not
looking to discourage competition. We just want a fair and
(41:06):
level playing field. So the good part is the regulations
are now going to be consistent. The concern we have,
or banks will have with paying in offering rewards on
these accounts is it pulls money out of the banking
system and moves it into this cryptocurrency world. And when
(41:29):
that happens, we lose our ability to loan money for mortgages,
for small businesses or home projects. So it hurts the community,
hurts the community bank, and when we think about the
size and scale of it, we begin to worry. So
it's a small piece today, but the estimates are that
(41:51):
it could grow to be a five billion dollar to
eleven billion dollar draw up away from banks in Massachusetts
into these cryptocurrencies or stable coins.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Yeah, so how do you protect yourself from that in
that scenario?
Speaker 14 (42:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (42:06):
Yeah, Well, you know, you would say the competition if
we we want a level playing field for rules and REGs,
but we also need to understand if they're going to
pay interest or rewards on these accounts, then we need
to be more competitive around rates and services without the
(42:30):
handcuffs of some of the rules that we have to
live by.
Speaker 5 (42:34):
So we had what happens next?
Speaker 10 (42:35):
Well, I think, but what I'm doing personally is rather
than trying to play defense and prevent cryptocurrency from you know,
emerging as an alternative to a community bank deposit, is
can a community bank offer a deposit account a tokenized deposit?
So now we're looking at you know, why don't we
(42:58):
become a don't we have a digital wallet that allows
these digital currencies to settle through the banking system, so
it doesn't take it away from our ability to lend
because it's still considered a deposit.
Speaker 14 (43:12):
So, Joe, to your.
Speaker 10 (43:13):
Point, how do we be competitive? I think we could
be competitive with a tokenized deposit.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Well, I'm looking at some of the notes that accompanied
your appearance on the show, today, and one of these
notes says this. At a national level, the Independent Community
Bankers of America predict that small banks risk losing one
point three trillion in deposits at eight hundred and fifty
billion dollars in loans if this legislation is passed.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
I mean that sounds lookout below.
Speaker 10 (43:42):
Yeah, And that's why the American Bankers Association and the
other trade groups have been lobbying on our behalf and
trying to educate senators and our congressmen as to what
the impact might be for the local communities.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
All right, and so the next step, well.
Speaker 10 (44:01):
The next step, I think from my standpoint, is how
do we convene as community bankers and develop a utility
that allows us to offer digital deposits so we can
we can have the same playing field or the ease
of use of a stable coin, but offer it to
our own community and our own customers.
Speaker 4 (44:23):
And thanks so much for being a part of the
show this morning. All right, still coming up here on
the New England Business Report. Joe, you're flying in one
of these airplanes?
Speaker 5 (44:31):
Yes or no?
Speaker 2 (44:33):
You know I'm not good on small planes, never mind
battery operated ones.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
Aaron Pressman of the Boston Globe. He took a spin
in a battery operated plane. He'll tell us all about
it coming up next.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six' Eighty joe And kim
will be right.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Back.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Hi I'm Joe, shortsley host of The New England Business
report ON. WRKO i recently said down With Mike marshall
Of Martial Wealth.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Management here's what he. Shared.
Speaker 15 (45:03):
Well with a three to five year time horizon before,
retirement the focus shifts totally from accumulating the assets to, optimizing,
protecting and transitioning the. Assets at this, point where you're
so close to, retirement every decision you make now will
directly affect your, income, taxes your, income and your. Legacy
you need to build a formal retirement income. Plan the
(45:25):
last thing you want to do is run out of.
Money if you are not working with a professional team of,
advisors then you yourself are accountable for the. Results At Martial,
wealth we make ourselves accountable for the results of our.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Clients if you're serious about protecting your estate and building retirement,
INCOME i suggest you Call mike today eight five, seven
three four two ten thirty Or martialwealth.
Speaker 16 (45:45):
Dot Com advisory services offered Through Capital analysts Or Lincoln
Investment Registered Investment. Advisors securities offered Through Lincoln Investment Broker
Dealer Member, FINRA, Sipc Lincoln investment Dot, Com Martial Wealth
management and the above firms are independent and not.
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Speaker 12 (46:51):
Com it's gone The Superlu.
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Summer hi, Everybody I'm Kim kerrigan.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
And I'm Joe.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Shortsley if you want to be part of The New
England Business, report sponsorships are still.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
Available you can email us at Any Business radio at
gmail dot.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Com that's Any Business radio all one word at gmail
dot com and we'll get your business on the show.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Too The New England Business report on W rko is
grow to you in part By suparu Of New, England
supero Of New england dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
And welcome back to The New Englan Business. Report on
This sunday, morning first day of, summer on This Father's,
day wishing a Happy Father's day to all those fathers out.
There here's an idea for. Dad how about if you you,
know put dad in an electric. AIRPLANE i don't. Know
story in The Boston globe By Aaron PRESSMAN a flight
(47:58):
in one of the world's first electric airplanes And aaron
got in this. Thing, aaron welcome to the. Program tell
us about this great to.
Speaker 14 (48:08):
Be, here thank. You so this Is Beta. Technologies they
are one of a handful of companies developing electric. Airplanes
but they're up here In, Burlington, vermont right in our,
backyard so something to write about and follow for The Boston.
Globe they're airplane which holds six people including the, pilot
or maybe about like as much cargo as a, van
a small. Van they're taking reporters out on flights. Now
(48:32):
SO i went up To burlington and we flew around
for about twenty, minutes went Over Lake. Champlain in many,
ways it's like being in any other small. Plane it's,
electric so maybe it's a little, quieter a little, smoother
and maybe you're thinking in the back of your mind
about the. Batteries but it has range of about three hundred.
Miles so a twenty minute flight was, fine and it
(48:54):
was really, exciting cutting edge a flying.
Speaker 5 (48:57):
Plane, Well, aeron you're a you're an Air.
Speaker 4 (49:02):
DEEVILS i guess What i'd like to, say because that
would make me a little. Unnerved you said it was
not as, loud, Obviously and the whole idea here, is you,
know jet fuel is very dirty and can be a
real problem and very.
Speaker 5 (49:18):
Expensive at this, point, YEAH.
Speaker 14 (49:20):
I mean they fly for like the cost of a.
Hundredths you, know we're talking massively cheaper actual operating. Cost,
now you, know you still have to pay the, pilot
you still have to all the landing fees and all that.
Stuff but the actual fuel, cost you, know it's like
pennies on the dollar compared to jet. FUEL i think
they were saying they had done a test flight from
The hamptons TO Jfk airport In New york and the
(49:42):
total fuel cost was seven.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Dollars talking With Aaron freshman of The Boston, globe he
covers the innovation. Beat his article of flight in one
of the world's first electric airplanes caught our attention here
talking all about.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
It, Okay, aaron who is, This who's behind? This and
where are we going with?
Speaker 14 (49:59):
Us? Yeah So Beta technologies is the brainchild of a
guy Named Kyle. Clark he has been a plane. Dvote
he's wanted to invent airplanes his whole. Life he's A harvard.
Guy he has an interesting. Story he tried to become
a professional hockey. Player he actually dropped out of college
and was drafted in THE. Nhl if he had been
(50:20):
a better hockey, player there might be no electric airplane
company In. Vermont but he didn't make it in THE.
Nhl he came, back finished his degree At harvard and
then started this company up In, vermont where he's, from
with a dream of transforming. Aviation now a couple of
other people have this dream out In. California you, know
you Have Archer, Aviation Joby aviation competing with them all
(50:40):
with this idea that planes that run on electricity will
be cheaper to operate and then open up a lot
of new markets like short cargo, flights short passenger. Flights you,
know maybe the way to get out To cape cod
really cheaply with this new.
Speaker 4 (50:53):
Technology, now at one point during your, flight he cut
the engine and you were.
Speaker 6 (50:59):
Going that's.
Speaker 14 (51:01):
Right so the, Pilot Chris, caputo who is a FORMER
f sixteen, pilot so he was very. Experienced he was
showing us the plane's incredible slipperiness in the air and
how much lift it, has and so he just cut
without telling. Us he just cut the, engines and the
plane was gliding and like slowly going. Downwards and he
(51:23):
was explaining to us that even if the engines completely
fail at he's not an, engine the motor completely, failed
the plane could glide down and land. Safely in most.
Cases it was a little it was a LITTLE i
had my heart in my heart in my vouth a little,
bit but it was. Fine.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, yeah that's WHEN i read your whole. Article i
read the whole thing and one of the things that
stuck with me is there's no air.
Speaker 14 (51:45):
Conditioning that's the other, thing, right you need to you,
know in the same way that like electric cars have
some weird shapes and weird door handles and. Stuff this
plane has to be very careful to maximize its. Efficiency
so there's no air conditioning because that would use a
lot of electricity and cut the.
Speaker 9 (52:01):
Range.
Speaker 5 (52:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:03):
Absolutely going back to the fact that it can glide
the way it, does it does speak to how aero
might sound like a silly term to. Use aerodynamic this
plane is it does look a little. Different, so you,
know did it feel when you got into? IT i,
mean is it just a lighter weight kind of?
Speaker 14 (52:22):
Airplane, YEAH i mean so one thing they'll tell, You
beta will say it's modeled after The arctic, turn which
is a bird that does the longest flights in the,
world that, flies you, know can glide very high in
the air and go for long. Flights so it has
a very unusual. Design the wing is on top of the.
(52:43):
Cabin it has two strange little humps in it that
help with the, aerodynamics and the whole plane is made
out of carbon. Fiber it's not a steel, plane so
that's to reduce the weight.
Speaker 4 (52:53):
Obviously So, aaron if that's the, case can it fly
in bad? Weather what would happen if it gets into
bad weather that they, SAY.
Speaker 14 (53:01):
I, mean they've said one of the. Advantages you, know
they want to take away some flights from, helicopters and
they say that one of their advantages is that it
can fly in more conditions and it's more stable than
a helicopter in bad conditions and rain and ice and
stuff like. That and part of it is as a
very long wingspan compared to the size of a. Cabin
the wingspan is over fifty. Feet so when you're just
(53:22):
looking at it compared to other planes like A cessna or,
something it does look very.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Different all, Right, aaron you cover the innovation beat there
for The boston glob what's the likelihood that, this you,
know airlines out there will, start you, know using this
type of.
Speaker 14 (53:37):
Aircraft so, THERE i, mean this company has been around
for more than ten years and they have two kinds of.
Planes one that lands and takes off like a normal
plane on a, runway and another that's more like a
helicopter that can take off. Vertically and that one is
a little more behind in the development and maybe is
a little. Riskier but this one that takes off like
a normal, plane they already have hundreds of orders for
(53:58):
it From New Zealand, airways from ups from all different
kinds of real airplane companies that really need. Airplanes so
it seems like a pretty good. BET i think their
stock market evaluation is about four billion dollars right.
Speaker 5 (54:11):
NOW faa, approved so.
Speaker 14 (54:14):
Interesting the certification process to be FULLY fa approved is
still like a year or two. Away but under The trump,
administration they're allowing revenue producing commercial flights under eight pilot
programs all around the country In florida And New york And,
louisiana all these different. Places AND beta won the right
to participate in seven out of the eight, programs so
(54:36):
they will be generating revenue this year taking cargo around
all different.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Places and this location you went to In, Burlington, vermont
is this where this plane is based or where they're
manufactured or what was this location?
Speaker 14 (54:50):
For, yeah So Kyle, clark the, founder is A vermont
guy and he wants to create jobs and a big
factory up there In. Vermont so they actually took us
through the factory where they are building these planes by.
Hand they have a big assembly, line but it's sort
of not very automated at this. POINT i think they're
making their saying they can make like twenty planes a
year up there right, now but they're going to obviously
(55:11):
try and increase that over. Time so it is a
huge facility where they are, experimenting they are, manufacturing they
are designing all that stuff up In, Burlington.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
Vermont, yeah and you said they have orders they're. Selling
so this is a success, story Right this is a big.
Speaker 14 (55:25):
Success story right. NOW i, mean if you bought this
doc in THE ipo Last, november you are sitting on
a loss right. NOW i think the stock is around sixteen.
Dollars they went public at thirty.
Speaker 9 (55:35):
Four it is a.
Speaker 14 (55:35):
You, know it's not a sure thing when this is
going to start generating all the revenue and get THE faa.
Certification there's still some, uncertainty but it seems like a
big success story so. Far they're a big employer up.
Speaker 4 (55:46):
There this might sound, silly but do they plug these
batteries in just like you would an electric car or
how does that?
Speaker 14 (55:53):
Work it is exactly like. That they have a looks
like an oversize car charger on the runway out there
In burlington and they have INSTALLED i think over one
hundred of these all around the country at little. AIRPORTS
i went out In marshfield has a small airport here
where they installed. One so, yeah they charge it just
like a. Car it takes about an hour to charge.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
Up all, Right, aaron what's next to, you? Pal what's
what can you what can you tease out for?
Speaker 6 (56:17):
Us i'm looking into all this is related To beta
actually all the defense technology startups and new companies Around
boston And New england that are looking to benefit from
increased defense.
Speaker 2 (56:31):
Spending, okay it's, great all, right He's Aaron pressman of
The Boston. Globe we do appreciate taking time in joining
us on The New England Business.
Speaker 4 (56:37):
Report, Well, joe that's going to do it for this
edition of The New England Business. Report we are so
happy that everybody could be with us on This, sunday
and we want to wish all of the fathers out
there A Happy Father's, Day.
Speaker 5 (56:50):
Joe Happy Father's, day my. Friend thank you very. Much
absolutely hope that everybody can.
Speaker 4 (56:56):
Join us again Next sunday when we take a little
trip down To Cape odd to see how summer is
going for the businesses down. There in the, meantime have
a great week, everybody and we'll chat again Next sunday
at eight am right here on The voice Of boston
w R k O A m six eighty
This is the New England Business Report with Joe Shortsleeve
and Kim Carragan, a weekly roundup and discussion of the
top business news impacting our New England economy.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
And good morning and welcome to the New England Business Report.
Joe shorts lived here with Kim Kerrigan.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
It is Sunday, June.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The twenty first Summer twenty twenty six is underway.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yes, it began at four twenty four a m. So
summer is just a few hours old.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And we actually find Kim Kerrigan out there skipping through
the daisies right now.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Well, Joe, I was actually up at four am trying
to make an egg stand on its end, you know,
the solstice, but it didn't work. So I should have
gone to bed earlier.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
But we'll be that as it may.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Now you know what that means. It means that right now,
our sunrise is five eleven a m. Of course, Kim,
you're already up and out the door by then, and
sunset is eight twenty three, so that already in.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Bed by bed.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
That's a fifteen hours in fifteen minutes of daylight.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
Yeah, it's great, it's great. I love it.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, I am to tell you what happens. Do I
need to tell you what happens next week?
Speaker 6 (01:09):
Now?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (01:09):
No, do not, fine, do not say it.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I am an early riser, and I do have to
say I see that. I do see those sunrises, and
it makes getting up early easier to do, you know,
because it's there's light in the sky at a little
after four, which is crazy.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
So but I love this time of year, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Have you been watching World Cup?
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Well, you know I have watched. I have watched minutes
of it. I have an issue with a game that
I don't know how long it's going to be.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
I don't get that. Just don't get extra time.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
What do they call it?
Speaker 5 (01:45):
Is that who knows how long it's going to be?
I can't figure it.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Out, you know, Yeah, nobody seems to know.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
I certainly have been watching, though all the excitement around
it it is. It really is fun to watch, how
dead it all of the fantasy.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
No, I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I have
to tell you I found myself watching, and I do
think the games are more exciting than I thought they
would be.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
So absolutely there you get that.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Hey, Today's program, how about this story, Kim, This is
something that you know is right up our alley.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
We're gonna be talking with Justin Evans.
Speaker 7 (02:20):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
He is the founder and editor of south Shore News. Okay,
and did you see the story in the Boston Global
story written by Aidan Ryan, a south Shore AI generated
news site put up a paywall. Hundreds of readers, including
a police chief, open their wallets, so you know, apparently
it's one guy running this news site and it's profitable.
(02:44):
So you saw the story, obviously, Kim I.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Did, Yes, Yes, I am here to tell you the
days of journalists.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
They're very quickly dwindling, aren't they.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Oh my?
Speaker 2 (02:55):
And it's interesting you read through the article on how
he does this and how he lays it out and
how he uses AI and all those various applications.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Well, we'll be talking.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
We'll be talking with Justin Evans, who's smiling ear to
ear in just a few moments, okay, and then we
have we're going to talk a little bit about domestic
abuse survivors and what workplaces can do to make them
feel safer or actually be safer. Talking about legislation that's
currently underway up there on Beacon Hill and Act relative
(03:27):
to and Employment protections for victims of abusive behavior, just like,
for example, it would be a victim of stalking who
needs a parking space closer to the work entrance or
in a wellded area, or a phone number change that
type of things workplaces can do to help these folks.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Yeah, if this law passes, it certainly will have an
impact on the business community. Interesting, and so Andrea Kramer,
and attorney who's kind of spearheaded this legislation, is going
to join.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
Us in the second half of the show.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
We are going to be joined by the BBJs Hannah Green,
and she's going to talk about some of the top
headlines this past week, one of them being that I
thought was really interesting. In the midst of all of
this World Cup stuff going on down at Boston Stadium
better known to most of us as Jillette Stadium, the
Craft Group is suing Foxborough. Now it doesn't actually have
(04:23):
anything to do with the current situation down their World Cup,
but you know, you sort of think of the Craft
Group being so simpatico with Foxborough, but maybe that's not
exactly the case. So she's going to explain that to us.
We're also going to discuss the clarity Act. It is
moving through Congress in Washington, d C. It's legislation that
(04:46):
will have an impact on guard railing cryptocurrency, but the
real impact may be at your local community banks. So
we're going to talk to president and CEO of Bank
five Antiguan about how all that might impact some local banks.
And then finally, would you fly in a battery operated airplane?
Speaker 5 (05:08):
No, there it's done.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
There's no air conditioning either, and there's no air conditioning
well the globes. Aaron Pressman did just that. He's talked
to us about the experience and what these battery operated
airplanes are all about.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
All right, Kim, So without further ado, we've been chatting
about this. Let's go Welcome Justin Evans of the program.
He's the founder and editor of south Shore News, an
AI generated news site.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Hello, we were wondering if Kim.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I are wondering, what's going to happen to our jobs?
What's gonna Justin, welcome to the program. So tell us
about this venture, tell us about south Shore News and
this AI generated news site.
Speaker 8 (05:54):
So, so south Shore News is really not trying to
replace journalism. I hope both of your job they're still Okay.
What I'm doing is taking public access recordings of government
meetings and summarizing them as local news stories. So it's
a way, particularly on the South Shore where we're in
a bit of a news desert, for locals to know
(06:17):
what's going on at their town halls.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
And justin.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
The interesting thing about this is that it is it's
becoming so popular that you have put up a paywall
and you've got subscribers.
Speaker 9 (06:31):
I do. Yeah.
Speaker 8 (06:32):
So I ran it for almost two years as a
public service for free, really more of an experiment in
my own mind to see if we could work. And
then I decided this April to see if you know,
considering that it worked, to see if people be willing
to pay for it.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
All right, So take us through this, because I mean
I had to, I really had to figure out, you know,
how this all works. Okay, and take us from soup
to notts. So what are you doing every day in
order to get this to you know, folks at their homes?
Speaker 8 (07:01):
So I am yeah, from the beginning. So you know,
a local school committee has a meeting, most of their
you know, local cable access channels put those recordings on
YouTube or on their websites. Or some other place online.
I find that recording, use an AI tool to create
a transcript of it, use a different AI tool to
summarize that transcript into a meeting compared against my you know,
(07:24):
list of the superintendents and school committee members like board members,
all of the names of the people in that area,
some of the history of what's been going on in
the district, and that summarized news article I edit, so
there is a human touch on every article, just to
verify basic facts and stuff, and then I will schedule
(07:45):
it to run sometime, usually within a week, so you know,
for me, most of the work is done.
Speaker 9 (07:49):
On the weekend. I still have a day job, but I'm.
Speaker 8 (07:51):
Able to schedule out a week's worth of meetings to
automatically publish on substack every day. You know.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Obviously, as we said, there's a put up a paywall,
and now you can get people to pay for it.
Give us a sense though, of what the response to
it has been. Why is it that people are so
attracted to this idea, and.
Speaker 8 (08:11):
So I think it's it's in part because of the
decline of local news. So where we used to have
a lot of weekly local papers in towns or regions
all over the state. There's mostly just a couple of
you know, large national organizations that may own some of
these local papers. You know, Situate Mariner, for example, is
owned by the USA Today Network, but they don't really
(08:33):
send reporters.
Speaker 9 (08:34):
To the sole lifeboard meetings, to the school committee meetings.
Speaker 8 (08:37):
They're republishing national stories with occasional local stuff, and so
there's not in a lot of towns. There's still some
you know, the Hingham and cohaesat Anchor still doing a
great job, Dustbury Clippers still doing a great job. But
for a lot of these towns, there isn't another place
to find out what's going on in your town hall,
on your school committee. And there are a lot of
(08:58):
stories still happening here. So you know, most of my
paying subscribers at least are either themselves government officials, former
government officials, people that lived in this world and want
to keep up with what's going on. I think that's
where I've found the most traction.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Well, we're talking with Justin Evans, who's the founder and
editor of south Shore News, an AI generated news site,
and we read about this in the Boston Globe article
by Aidan Ryan, a South shore AI generated news site
put up a paywall. Hundreds of readers, including a police chief,
opened their wallets. Let's talk about that business side if
we could adjustin how do the dollars work?
Speaker 8 (09:33):
So you know, the basic subscription is eight dollars a month,
and that covers nineteen towns, you know, at least all
of the select board, town council and school committeeings, depending
on your government structure. And then there'll be you know,
I run occasional deep dives on Saturdays with you know,
election results when town elections happen. And then if something
(09:54):
interesting happens. There was a couple months of really bizarre
happenings on the Rockland Border health I covered that, so
that you know, eight dollars a month gets you access
to all of those the you know, there's an annual
discount eighty dollars for the for the year, basically two
months free. And then group rates and the group rates
have been more popular among municipal organizations or quasi municipal organizations,
(10:17):
where there are people who it's important to know not
necessarily what your town is doing, but what your neighboring
towns are doing, what other school districts are doing so
you can keep up.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Yeah, sure, so justin I recognize that, you know, you're
doing these these meetings, you know, and it's sort of
local government that you're covering.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
But what's the possibility that you might take this.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Further and where you're going all with this?
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yeah, you might go out and start to you know,
record other kinds of events and then let AI transcribe
those and so on and so forth.
Speaker 8 (10:52):
I don't think I plan on doing that, but I
certainly think other people will plan on doing that. I
think that this technology is here to stay, and you know,
for sake of numbers, I'll stick to a government meeting.
But I covered a Plymouth special town meeting using AI software.
Speaker 9 (11:09):
It probably took me.
Speaker 8 (11:10):
A half an hour to review the transcript, view the article,
edit the article, maybe even forty five minutes. But a link,
you know, that is a longer period of time for me.
Speaker 9 (11:19):
To do this. But it was an eight hour special.
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Town meeting that the Plymouth Independent sent.
Speaker 9 (11:23):
Two reporters to.
Speaker 8 (11:25):
And just looking at the cost of covering this news,
their article is better by far. They had the contact
of the nuance of what's going.
Speaker 9 (11:32):
On in the room.
Speaker 8 (11:33):
But just if you want to know what the outcome
of that meeting was.
Speaker 9 (11:37):
The AI tools were able to do it. So I
do think that this is this is here to stay.
Speaker 8 (11:42):
And even if I'm not the one branching out into
other recordings to follow this process, I think somebody will.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, so justin it all sounds like it's very good
news at this point. But what's the hardest part for
you or what's the hardest part for this business model?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
What are the problems?
Speaker 8 (12:01):
I think for me it is, you know, the editing
is the thing I would like to solve more. And
I don't think that it's that's going to be something
that I automate. I think that that is something that
I'll hire a professional. You know, I'm an engineer. I'm
not a journalist. I think that if business goes well enough,
I'm going to bring in an editor to do what
they do best and get the confirmed that you know,
(12:21):
the street names and all these Southshort towns are spelled correctly,
and that the meeting votes are going the way that
it the transcript interprets it is. There are still AI hallucinations,
there are still mistakes that I have to catch before
they go out.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
For example, I'm trying to think of what is.
Speaker 9 (12:39):
A good recent example.
Speaker 8 (12:41):
Uh, you know, speaker identification is probably the most common issue.
If it's just it's converting a meeting into text. If
you don't know which mark in the room is being addressed,
or which person is the one making the motion or speaking,
that's sometimes important. Or things like if someone is voting
(13:01):
to you know, open a public hearing or close a
public hearing, you know, does.
Speaker 9 (13:06):
The AI software believe that they.
Speaker 8 (13:08):
Are voting to approve the underlying measure? So there's like
little government nuances that I still have to catch, and
there's strange things there. But I'll say that over the
last years the software has gotten a lot better, and
I'm mostly using commercially available products, the large language models
that anyone has access to.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Is there a cost there for you there?
Speaker 8 (13:27):
I mean obviously, oh yeah, I'm sending probably I think
I send in the globe.
Speaker 9 (13:32):
But close to two.
Speaker 8 (13:33):
Thousand dollars a year between subscription costs, token costs for
some of the more software based stuff I'm doing. But
that you know, two thousand dollars a year, I've got
three hundred and sixty some odd subscribers paying in about
thirty seven hundred total, So the profit margin is there,
(13:53):
and I'm probably pretty close to the point where i
could afford to bring in an editor and get some
of this work off my desk.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
My final question, do you justin is this any pushback
from the community or from the people who are sitting
on all these boards and in all these meetings.
Speaker 8 (14:08):
There definitely is some pushback. Most of it is just
on the general why is AI doing this covering these meetings?
You know, when there are errors in timing, if you know,
sometimes the planning board meets one night, the zoning board
another night, and then the select board meets, and the
votes change throughout that process and my article runs a
week later.
Speaker 9 (14:29):
Some of that gets out of place.
Speaker 8 (14:31):
So there are definitely shortcomings to the way that I'm
doing it, and most of the way that I've been
sharing these stories, a lot of my growth, you know,
prior to the Boston Globe article has been on community.
Speaker 9 (14:42):
Facebook pages because that's where people.
Speaker 8 (14:43):
Are going for their local news apps and newspapers right now,
and that invites all kinds of Facebook pushback that I
think anybody would get.
Speaker 10 (14:52):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Sure, justin the final a lot of question for me,
are you delighted?
Speaker 11 (14:55):
With this.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Do you wake up every morning and go woo, who
look at I did?
Speaker 9 (15:01):
This has been really thrilling.
Speaker 8 (15:03):
You know. I came at this as a problem that
I thought AI could solve, not really a business.
Speaker 9 (15:07):
Yeah, and the business has grown around the solution, so
that is is really exciting.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Well, congratulations to you and yeah, and thank you very
much for Justin Evans for joining us on the New
England Business Support.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Kim. Yeah, our days are numbered, Kim. I don't know.
We'll just keep plugging away, cowing off.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
We're gonna we talk about the legislation on Bacon Hill
and it has to do with businesses can do better
to protect victims of domestic violence. Stay with us.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston w r KO six 't eighty
Joe and Kim will be right back.
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It's gonna be a super summer.
Speaker 14 (16:55):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I'm Joe Shortzleeve, host of the New England Business Report
on WRKO. I recently said down with Mike Marshall of
Martial Wealth Management.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Here's what he shared.
Speaker 11 (17:03):
Well.
Speaker 15 (17:03):
With a three to five year time horizon before retirement,
the focus shifts totally from accumulating the assets to optimizing,
protecting and transitioning the assets. At this point where you're
so close to retirement, every decision you make now will
directly affect your income, taxes, your income and your legacy.
You need to build a formal retirement income plan. The
(17:25):
last thing you want to do is run out of money.
If you are not working with a professional team of advisors,
then you yourself are accountable for the results. At Martial Wealth,
we make ourselves accountable for the results of our clients.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
If you're serious about protecting your estate and building retirement income,
I suggest you call Mike today eight five, seven, three, four,
two ten thirty or Martialwealth dot Com.
Speaker 16 (17:46):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
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Lincoln Investment dot Com, Martial Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
And I'm Joe Shortsley. If you want to be part
of the New England Business Report, sponsorships are still available.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Welcome back everyone to the New England Business Report. So
good to have you with us on this Father's Day. Joe,
it's Father's Day.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
It's just been showered in gifts. Here and appreciation.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Again, back up the truck, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Listen, we're gonna change gears from our laughing at Joe's
Father's Day, which I'm sure, by the way, we're laughing,
but I'm sure it's probably true. But talk a little
bit about domestic violence, and as strange here on a
business show as this may be, domestic violence is a
workplace issue. And our next guest is going to explain that.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
That, of course is according to our next guest.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
It's also according to organizations like Employers Against Domestic Violence.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
And right now there's a.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
Bill, it's called the Protected at Work Bill that is
up on Beacon Hill. It's being discussed. You know, by
all accounts it is universally supported, but it just can't
quite get that momentum. It needs to get over the
finish line and become law. They're hoping that that is
the case very soon. Let's learn a little bit more
about this. Joining us now is Boston based attorney Andre Kramber. Andrew,
(19:37):
it's great to have you with us. First thing I
want you to do, if you will, is explain to
our business audience why domestic violence has any impact on them.
Speaker 7 (19:46):
Certainly and thank you so much for having me and
for highlighting this important issue. There is at least three
reasons why this is a business issue, but at bottom,
it comes down to this, whether employers know it or not,
they have victims in their workplace. The statistics are that
one in four women is going to experience domestic violence
in her work life. And if you look at an
(20:10):
employer of fifty, they're going to have people there at
various times who are victims of domestic violence. And I
am using the term victims instead of survivors. It's the
way it's seen in the legal world. I also refer
to them as survivors sometimes. So the reason so, besides
the shared numbers, why does it matter, Well, it matters
(20:32):
because it comes into the workplace. It affects an employee's
productivity there, it affects it affects their coworkers. And the
reality is, and it might be counterintuitive for an advocate
to be pointing this out, it can bring violence into
the workplace, but ignoring it doesn't make any of that
(20:52):
go away, and firing somebody doesn't make any of that
go away. The way to deal with it is head on.
So that's why it's a workplace issue.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
All right, give us an idea of what this legislation,
if passed, would do in specific circumstances.
Speaker 7 (21:07):
So, the first thing this bill does is it prevents
discrimination against victims of domestic violence. And so what does
that mean discrimination? It means not hiring somebody because they're
a victim, or firing somebody because there's a victim because
they're a victim. You might think, well, why would somebody
ever do that. Well, sometimes they do it based on stereotypes.
(21:27):
More often they do it because of beliefs about safety
in the workplace. If I get rid of that one person,
my workplace will be safe, and that's not actually true.
Marion Ryan, the District Attorney of Middlesex, puts it best.
She says, so you get rid of that first person,
which by the way, doesn't necessarily mean the abuser is
not going to come and commit violence. But what happens
(21:49):
with the second and third and fourth person. They're not
going to come tell you that they're victims because they're
going to be afraid to lose their jobs.
Speaker 9 (21:54):
And then you can't protect yourself.
Speaker 7 (21:56):
The best way for the employer to try to protect
add safety in the workplace is to have an open
and honest conversation with a victim and then bring in
law enforcement, which is why law enforcement likes this still
as well. The second thing it does is it has
employers provide what we call reasonable accommodations, which employers do
(22:17):
in any number of other ways, and this actually helps employers.
It helped because by working with a victim, they can
keep the person and this adds retention and it actually
could become a way, you know, to recruit better. But
let's just stick on retention, right, And if a person
(22:38):
is going through a short period of a bad time
in their life, rather than getting rid of that person
or that person leaving because of the domestic violence that person,
the employer could work with the worker to make accommodations
and then that person's there and probably there longer and
more loyally.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
And what is the status of the legislation right now, Andrea,
the likelihood of the passage?
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Well, Kim got it exactly right. It has broad based support,
it has gone through the three steps it needs to
in the House, and now it's just waiting to be
put on the calendar to be voted on, brought to
the floor of the House. Then it'll go through the
same process over in the Senate. It has already cleared
the hurdle in one committee. We're pretty sure it would
(23:24):
get through all the hurdles, and then it would be
voted on the floor for the Senate and then signed
by the Governor, who is supportive of the bill. I
have spoken with her and people on her staff.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Andrea, I know that this has passed in a number
of other states. I've also noticed that it's been endorsed
by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts as well as the
Massachusetts Restaurant Association. So what should businesses do to help
to push this over the finish line there on Beacon Hill.
Speaker 7 (23:52):
Wonderful and thank you for asking. They should reach out
to the Speaker of the House, Speaker of Ron Mariano,
and tell him that they want this to come up
for a vote. You know, businesses, clearly, you know, are
in business to make money, but they're also run by
human beings who care about other human beings, and in
(24:13):
that respect, businesses have a large role to play in
helping with the scourge of domestic violence. They can help
identify victims, help make a workplace where victims can come forward,
help support them at one of the most vulnerable times
in their lives and help the workers around them who
(24:34):
also experience stress because of their coworker, their colleague whom
they care about. So just even on a human level
besides the bottom line, this is something most businesses care
about because the human beings and the business care about
it absolutely.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Andrea Kramer, thank you very much for updating us on
this situation. And again, it's protected at work is this legislation.
So if you are a business owner and you want
to get behind the legislation, as you just heard, calling
the Speaker's office is an important step in pushing it
over the finish line. When we come back, headlines from
(25:15):
the Boston Business Journal, and we'll also be talking about
flying in a battery operated airplay.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Keim and Joe will explore more business news that impacts
our New England economy. When they return.
Speaker 13 (25:32):
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It's gonna be a super little set.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I'm Joe Shortzleeve, host of the New England Business Report
on WRKO. I recently sat down with Mike Marshall of
Martial Wealth Management.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Here's what he shared.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Well.
Speaker 15 (26:41):
With a three to five year time horizon before retirement,
the focus shifts totally from accumulating the assets who optimizing,
protecting and transitioning the assets. At this point where you're
so close to retirement, every decision you make now will
directly affect your income, taxes, your income and your legacy.
You need to build a formal retirement income plan. The
(27:02):
last thing you want to do is run out of
money if you are not working with a professional team
of advisors and you yourself are accountable for the results.
At Martial Wealth, we make ourselves accountable for the results
of our clients.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
If you're serious about protecting your estate and building retirement income,
I suggest you call Mike today eight five, seven, three, four,
two ten thirty or Martialwealth dot Com.
Speaker 16 (27:23):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member
Fin SIPC, Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshall Wealth Management and
the above firms are independent and not affiliated.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Welcome back everyone to the New England Business Report. Great
to have you with us on this Sunday morning. Quick reminder,
Aaron Pressman from the Boston Globe will be with us
this half hour. He's going to tell us about his
experience flying an electric battery operated airplane up in Vermont.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Buckle up.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Yeah, battery and airplane do not go together for me.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Joe. I just need you to know that.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
This is the time when we like to check some
headlines that maybe you missed this past week and here's
one that I absolutely love.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Is we get ready to celebrate America's two hundred and
fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
What says Americana more than a good fried apple pie?
And by the way, McDonald's is bringing it back.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
They announced this past week. Joe, first question is this.
Did you know it was gone?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
I did not know it was gone, but I can
tell you growing up, I was a fan and.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
They had a blueberry pie. Really, oh yes they did.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Well, let me tell you this what you're going to
probably be very surprised about. You Actually, when you were
eating your blueberry pie or your apple pie, you weren't
eating the fried version. They put the fried version out
very early, and then they made the determination that, you know,
it was too expensive to make, so they figured out
how to make a baked version that people thought was fried.
(29:06):
But the crazy part is that the baked version actually
had more calories than the fried version. But now in
this day and age, they are able to bring back
the actual fried version. So just in time for America's
two hundred and fiftieth birthday. Lo and behold, there's that
lovely fried tree coming back.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
So we can all rest a little easier tonight. All right, Kim.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Of course, the business news that we follow every week,
a lot of it comes from the Boston Business Journal.
This morning, we're going to be joined by their life
science reporter, Hannah Green. Hannah, thanks very much for taking
time in joining us on this Sunday morning, first day
of summer. Here talk about some of the headlines that
have happened this past week, and World Cup soccer seems
(29:56):
to be what we all like to talk about.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Here's a headline.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Craft Group sues Foxborough over abuse of the state licensing system. Huh,
what's going on there, Hannah?
Speaker 11 (30:09):
Yes, you may remember this is perhaps not the first
battle between the Craft Group and Foxborough. The latest installment
of this is now the Craft Group and the Patriots
are saying that the town of Foxborough is charging them
almost one million dollars for a license fee that should
be about one hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Well, that is true, I guess they would have reason
to sue. Yeah, So, so explain to us, you know
why now, why have they suddenly you put that together?
Speaker 5 (30:40):
And what does the town of Foxborough say about that?
Speaker 11 (30:43):
Yeah, the town is saying that they put in new
provisions this year for the entertainment license fee that the
Craft Group needs to host events sports events at Chillette Stadium.
Every year they say they're putting in new provisions to
cover things like public safety and other municipal services that
are needed to support events that are being held at Gillette.
Usually this fee is about one hundred dollars Craft Sports
(31:06):
and Entertainment, and the Patriots are now suing the town.
They're saying that the entertainment license fee under state law
is not supposed to be more than one hundred dollars,
so this is, as you said, quite a jump up
almost one dollars.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
I remember in our news from a Channel four when
people were suggesting stories that we cover, our news director
would look at us and.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Say, yeah, so what why do we care about this?
Speaker 2 (31:29):
And I guess I'm looking at this and going, okay,
so what's it play here? Then Hannah, is there any
so what what happens?
Speaker 11 (31:36):
I think this speaks to the again that kind of
continued tussling between the Craft Group and Foxborough and the town.
You may remember earlier this year, before the World Cup
even started, the town was threatening to withhold the license
needed to host the matches at Gillette unless the Craft
Group paid for security costs. So if this continues, there
(31:58):
could be future issues with license is being able to
host games. You never know where it could go, but
discontinued fighting is definitely not what either side probably wants
to see in terms of being able to host events
and have the economic opportunity from those events coming to town.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
You know, it's so interesting because the Craft Group needs
Foxborough and Foxborough needs the Craft Group, so it's.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
An interesting just get along.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, it's an interesting dynamic to say the least, that's
for sure. Another story that you guys covered this week
which I thought was interesting is trip Advisor is selling
their restaurant reservation platform. The name of that is the Fork,
and it's really big overseas. They're selling it to American Express.
Speaker 11 (32:42):
Why trip Advisor has been kind of going through an
interesting period, I would say recently they had a activist
investor get involved in the company called Starboard Value, and
one of the things they'd been pushing for is a
sale of the Fork, in addition to other things like
integrating AI more into the company. I would say the
Fork is the revenue has been growing from this business
(33:05):
for trip Advisor, but it's not one of its biggest
business segments. So I think, you know, the activist investor
has been pushing them to offload things that are perhaps
not key to driving revenue for trip Advisor at this time.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Where do we where do folks use the fork and
and and how does it? How does it work?
Speaker 11 (33:22):
You know, it's very big in Europe, and it's an
electronic reservation booking system, and so that trip Advisor's other
two business segments are more in experiences and and other
things rather than restaurant focused.
Speaker 5 (33:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
It's so interesting though, because you would think that would
do well for them, because people do use trip Advisor
when planning trips overseas. So interesting America expresses, let us
have it seven hundred is it?
Speaker 5 (33:52):
What are they selling? Seven hundred million dollars?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 14 (33:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Let's talk a little bit about the new landlord, if
you will, in Boston for one of the big life
science campuses.
Speaker 11 (34:05):
Yeah, Tishman Spire has now taken over management and leasing
for this really large two building life science and office
campus in the South End. This building is owned by
BioMed Realty. They bought it twenty twenty one, kind of
when the biotech boom was really taking off in the
Boston area. At that time it was just supposed to
be an office building, but they decided to convert one
(34:27):
of the buildings into labs and keep the other as
an office building, and now Tishman is going to take
over leasing it and managing the space.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
We're talking with a Hannah Green. She's a life science
reporter with the Boston Business Journal. We're talking about the
headlines this week, you know, and I know there's another
headline we want to touch upon here, but I'd like
to hear a little bit about you and your job
and what's on your desk every day. Give us an
idea of what a day in the life of Hannah
Green is there at the BBJ.
Speaker 11 (34:53):
Sure, I cover life sciences, medtech, biotech companies essentially any
sort of company that's operating in the Massachusetts area that's
making drugs, making medical devices, everything from brand new startups
to some of the largest pharma companies that have a
presence here in Massachusetts. So you know, gsk Eli, Lilly
(35:15):
of Artists, all those companies down to you know, a
new Cambridge startup spinning out of Harvard or MIT.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
And do you make your own decision about what you cover,
or is Doug Banks coming into the room and you know,
stopping his foot and saying, Hannah, let's go.
Speaker 11 (35:29):
It's a collective effort.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
So you're admitting that happens. That's funny.
Speaker 4 (35:39):
And Hannah, let me ask you about that sector. How
is it doing, because that's an important sector to this
area of the country.
Speaker 11 (35:45):
Yeah. Yeah, Massachusetts and the Boston area is a huge
biotech hub, not just in the US but globally. The
last two years have have been challenging. There's been a
lot of layoffs. Funding has kind of receded a bit
so far this year though, people seem to be a
bit more optimistic in the industry seems to be doing
(36:05):
a lot better. One of those measures we look at
is companies going public in the Boston area. Last year,
there were only two kind of Massachusetts linked biotechs that
went public. So far this year we've already had eight,
and one of those is the biggest biotech ipa we've
ever seen. So it's it's definitely improving in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5 (36:26):
So far, great, great.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Thank Another headline from the BBJ, en Gine slashes staff
by fifty percent to preserve cash ahead of regulatory push.
Take us inside this Hannah, I.
Speaker 11 (36:41):
Know, I just said things are getting better, but everything.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Has not always never mind what I just said.
Speaker 11 (36:49):
You know again kind of especially the last few years,
cash has been a bit more tight for companies, and
so you know when you maybe perhaps had a bit
more flexibility in the past to pivot or wait out
for data, Now companies maybe need to make some changes
to their workforce to cut costs in order to make
it to that point where they can get data and
(37:09):
get it to approval. So the company did lay off
fifty percent of its workforce, about forty employees, in the
hope that it will be able to bring a bladder
cancer gene therapy to approval.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Any chance that they are going to bring those people
back after they bring that drug to market, it could happen.
Speaker 11 (37:30):
I think. You know, once you start thinking about shifting
to becoming a commercial company, there is certainly new hiring
that happens there. Sometimes it's in a different area, folks
more focused on commercial and sales versus I'm guessing some
of these folks are more research and development, and we're
working on other potential drugs for the company. But you know,
(37:50):
if this comes to market, the company starts making money.
There would certainly be new hiring that would be happening,
all right.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
And she's a Hannah Green, she's a life science reporter
with the Boston Business Journal. And we do appreciate you
taking time in joining us on the first day of
summer here on this Sunday morning.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Well, Joe, the Clarity Act, this is something that lawmakers
have been looking at and the goal of it is
to create federal guard rails when it comes to the
cryptocurrency industry. It would allow third party platforms to offer
interest like rewards for investors to directly compete with banks.
(38:26):
So here to talk to us more about the impact
this act could have on local community banks is in Tangan.
She's the president and CEO of Bank five, headquartered in
Fall River and and it's great to have you.
Speaker 10 (38:40):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Absolutely Well, maybe you could give us a brief overview
of what these federal guard rails would look like.
Speaker 10 (38:49):
Yes, So, the Genius Act, which was passed back in
July of twenty twenty five, really put the guardrails in
place for uh these stable coins, and when they realized
they needed more clarity, they then said, okay, you have
a year uh to UH to bring more clarity around
(39:12):
who's going to regulate, how it will be regulated, and
what are the are there the ability to pay interest
or rewards on these stable coin accounts. So the Clarity
Act was meant to do just what it says, clarify
some of the rules. So the the OCC is the
regulator UH for these UH stable coins, which are essentially
(39:37):
cryptocurrencies that are a US dollar base. So when we
think about what this means when they're you're holding UH
US dollars or US equivalent dollars in a cryptocurrency account.
It provides the ability to make payments around the world.
It allows instant payments, i would say, and it was
(40:00):
first developed to be a payment service. So the nice
part about it is the ease of use, the ease
of settlement around the world. It has a lot of
benefits for maybe a commercial customer that's doing business around
the world. And the worry that banks had is are
they using the same rules that banks have to safeguard
(40:22):
for money laundering and fraud and making sure that those
rules apply across the board with these stable coin accounts.
That's the crusts of it.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Yeah, I'm talking with Nantangan president's CEO of Fall River,
a headquartered a bank five. They've got some seventeen locations.
She's been in that position since twenty twenty. Okay, talk
to us about both sides of this issue, if you could,
and the good the bad.
Speaker 10 (40:46):
So the good is creating the guardrails and creating a
level playing fields between banks and these new FinTechs. And
banks aren't against innovation. We love innovations not We're not
looking to discourage competition. We just want a fair and
(41:06):
level playing field. So the good part is the regulations
are now going to be consistent. The concern we have,
or banks will have with paying in offering rewards on
these accounts is it pulls money out of the banking
system and moves it into this cryptocurrency world. And when
(41:29):
that happens, we lose our ability to loan money for mortgages,
for small businesses or home projects. So it hurts the community,
hurts the community bank, and when we think about the
size and scale of it, we begin to worry. So
it's a small piece today, but the estimates are that
(41:51):
it could grow to be a five billion dollar to
eleven billion dollar draw up away from banks in Massachusetts
into these cryptocurrencies or stable coins.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Yeah, so how do you protect yourself from that in
that scenario?
Speaker 14 (42:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (42:06):
Yeah, Well, you know, you would say the competition if
we we want a level playing field for rules and REGs,
but we also need to understand if they're going to
pay interest or rewards on these accounts, then we need
to be more competitive around rates and services without the
(42:30):
handcuffs of some of the rules that we have to
live by.
Speaker 5 (42:34):
So we had what happens next?
Speaker 10 (42:35):
Well, I think, but what I'm doing personally is rather
than trying to play defense and prevent cryptocurrency from you know,
emerging as an alternative to a community bank deposit, is
can a community bank offer a deposit account a tokenized deposit?
So now we're looking at you know, why don't we
(42:58):
become a don't we have a digital wallet that allows
these digital currencies to settle through the banking system, so
it doesn't take it away from our ability to lend
because it's still considered a deposit.
Speaker 14 (43:12):
So, Joe, to your.
Speaker 10 (43:13):
Point, how do we be competitive? I think we could
be competitive with a tokenized deposit.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Well, I'm looking at some of the notes that accompanied
your appearance on the show, today, and one of these
notes says this. At a national level, the Independent Community
Bankers of America predict that small banks risk losing one
point three trillion in deposits at eight hundred and fifty
billion dollars in loans if this legislation is passed.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
I mean that sounds lookout below.
Speaker 10 (43:42):
Yeah, And that's why the American Bankers Association and the
other trade groups have been lobbying on our behalf and
trying to educate senators and our congressmen as to what
the impact might be for the local communities.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
All right, and so the next step, well.
Speaker 10 (44:01):
The next step, I think from my standpoint, is how
do we convene as community bankers and develop a utility
that allows us to offer digital deposits so we can
we can have the same playing field or the ease
of use of a stable coin, but offer it to
our own community and our own customers.
Speaker 4 (44:23):
And thanks so much for being a part of the
show this morning. All right, still coming up here on
the New England Business Report. Joe, you're flying in one
of these airplanes?
Speaker 5 (44:31):
Yes or no?
Speaker 2 (44:33):
You know I'm not good on small planes, never mind
battery operated ones.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
Aaron Pressman of the Boston Globe. He took a spin
in a battery operated plane. He'll tell us all about
it coming up next.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six' Eighty joe And kim
will be right.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Back.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Hi I'm Joe, shortsley host of The New England Business
report ON. WRKO i recently said down With Mike marshall
Of Martial Wealth.
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Management here's what he. Shared.
Speaker 15 (45:03):
Well with a three to five year time horizon before,
retirement the focus shifts totally from accumulating the assets to, optimizing,
protecting and transitioning the. Assets at this, point where you're
so close to, retirement every decision you make now will
directly affect your, income, taxes your, income and your. Legacy
you need to build a formal retirement income. Plan the
(45:25):
last thing you want to do is run out of.
Money if you are not working with a professional team of,
advisors then you yourself are accountable for the. Results At Martial,
wealth we make ourselves accountable for the results of our.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Clients if you're serious about protecting your estate and building retirement,
INCOME i suggest you Call mike today eight five, seven
three four two ten thirty Or martialwealth.
Speaker 16 (45:45):
Dot Com advisory services offered Through Capital analysts Or Lincoln
Investment Registered Investment. Advisors securities offered Through Lincoln Investment Broker
Dealer Member, FINRA, Sipc Lincoln investment Dot, Com Martial Wealth
management and the above firms are independent and not.
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Com it's gone The Superlu.
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Summer hi, Everybody I'm Kim kerrigan.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
And I'm Joe.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Shortsley if you want to be part of The New
England Business, report sponsorships are still.
Speaker 4 (47:08):
Available you can email us at Any Business radio at
gmail dot.
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Com that's Any Business radio all one word at gmail
dot com and we'll get your business on the show.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
Too The New England Business report on W rko is
grow to you in part By suparu Of New, England
supero Of New england dot com.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
And welcome back to The New Englan Business. Report on
This sunday, morning first day of, summer on This Father's,
day wishing a Happy Father's day to all those fathers out.
There here's an idea for. Dad how about if you you,
know put dad in an electric. AIRPLANE i don't. Know
story in The Boston globe By Aaron PRESSMAN a flight
(47:58):
in one of the world's first electric airplanes And aaron
got in this. Thing, aaron welcome to the. Program tell
us about this great to.
Speaker 14 (48:08):
Be, here thank. You so this Is Beta. Technologies they
are one of a handful of companies developing electric. Airplanes
but they're up here In, Burlington, vermont right in our,
backyard so something to write about and follow for The Boston.
Globe they're airplane which holds six people including the, pilot
or maybe about like as much cargo as a, van
a small. Van they're taking reporters out on flights. Now
(48:32):
SO i went up To burlington and we flew around
for about twenty, minutes went Over Lake. Champlain in many,
ways it's like being in any other small. Plane it's,
electric so maybe it's a little, quieter a little, smoother
and maybe you're thinking in the back of your mind
about the. Batteries but it has range of about three hundred.
Miles so a twenty minute flight was, fine and it
(48:54):
was really, exciting cutting edge a flying.
Speaker 5 (48:57):
Plane, Well, aeron you're a you're an Air.
Speaker 4 (49:02):
DEEVILS i guess What i'd like to, say because that
would make me a little. Unnerved you said it was
not as, loud, Obviously and the whole idea here, is you,
know jet fuel is very dirty and can be a
real problem and very.
Speaker 5 (49:18):
Expensive at this, point, YEAH.
Speaker 14 (49:20):
I mean they fly for like the cost of a.
Hundredths you, know we're talking massively cheaper actual operating. Cost,
now you, know you still have to pay the, pilot
you still have to all the landing fees and all that.
Stuff but the actual fuel, cost you, know it's like
pennies on the dollar compared to jet. FUEL i think
they were saying they had done a test flight from
The hamptons TO Jfk airport In New york and the
(49:42):
total fuel cost was seven.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Dollars talking With Aaron freshman of The Boston, globe he
covers the innovation. Beat his article of flight in one
of the world's first electric airplanes caught our attention here
talking all about.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
It, Okay, aaron who is, This who's behind? This and
where are we going with?
Speaker 14 (49:59):
Us? Yeah So Beta technologies is the brainchild of a
guy Named Kyle. Clark he has been a plane. Dvote
he's wanted to invent airplanes his whole. Life he's A harvard.
Guy he has an interesting. Story he tried to become
a professional hockey. Player he actually dropped out of college
and was drafted in THE. Nhl if he had been
(50:20):
a better hockey, player there might be no electric airplane
company In. Vermont but he didn't make it in THE.
Nhl he came, back finished his degree At harvard and
then started this company up In, vermont where he's, from
with a dream of transforming. Aviation now a couple of
other people have this dream out In. California you, know
you Have Archer, Aviation Joby aviation competing with them all
(50:40):
with this idea that planes that run on electricity will
be cheaper to operate and then open up a lot
of new markets like short cargo, flights short passenger. Flights you,
know maybe the way to get out To cape cod
really cheaply with this new.
Speaker 4 (50:53):
Technology, now at one point during your, flight he cut
the engine and you were.
Speaker 6 (50:59):
Going that's.
Speaker 14 (51:01):
Right so the, Pilot Chris, caputo who is a FORMER
f sixteen, pilot so he was very. Experienced he was
showing us the plane's incredible slipperiness in the air and
how much lift it, has and so he just cut
without telling. Us he just cut the, engines and the
plane was gliding and like slowly going. Downwards and he
(51:23):
was explaining to us that even if the engines completely
fail at he's not an, engine the motor completely, failed
the plane could glide down and land. Safely in most.
Cases it was a little it was a LITTLE i
had my heart in my heart in my vouth a little,
bit but it was. Fine.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
Yeah, yeah that's WHEN i read your whole. Article i
read the whole thing and one of the things that
stuck with me is there's no air.
Speaker 14 (51:45):
Conditioning that's the other, thing, right you need to you,
know in the same way that like electric cars have
some weird shapes and weird door handles and. Stuff this
plane has to be very careful to maximize its. Efficiency
so there's no air conditioning because that would use a
lot of electricity and cut the.
Speaker 9 (52:01):
Range.
Speaker 5 (52:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:03):
Absolutely going back to the fact that it can glide
the way it, does it does speak to how aero
might sound like a silly term to. Use aerodynamic this
plane is it does look a little. Different, so you,
know did it feel when you got into? IT i,
mean is it just a lighter weight kind of?
Speaker 14 (52:22):
Airplane, YEAH i mean so one thing they'll tell, You
beta will say it's modeled after The arctic, turn which
is a bird that does the longest flights in the,
world that, flies you, know can glide very high in
the air and go for long. Flights so it has
a very unusual. Design the wing is on top of the.
(52:43):
Cabin it has two strange little humps in it that
help with the, aerodynamics and the whole plane is made
out of carbon. Fiber it's not a steel, plane so
that's to reduce the weight.
Speaker 4 (52:53):
Obviously So, aaron if that's the, case can it fly
in bad? Weather what would happen if it gets into
bad weather that they, SAY.
Speaker 14 (53:01):
I, mean they've said one of the. Advantages you, know
they want to take away some flights from, helicopters and
they say that one of their advantages is that it
can fly in more conditions and it's more stable than
a helicopter in bad conditions and rain and ice and
stuff like. That and part of it is as a
very long wingspan compared to the size of a. Cabin
the wingspan is over fifty. Feet so when you're just
(53:22):
looking at it compared to other planes like A cessna or,
something it does look very.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Different all, Right, aaron you cover the innovation beat there
for The boston glob what's the likelihood that, this you,
know airlines out there will, start you, know using this
type of.
Speaker 14 (53:37):
Aircraft so, THERE i, mean this company has been around
for more than ten years and they have two kinds of.
Planes one that lands and takes off like a normal
plane on a, runway and another that's more like a
helicopter that can take off. Vertically and that one is
a little more behind in the development and maybe is
a little. Riskier but this one that takes off like
a normal, plane they already have hundreds of orders for
(53:58):
it From New Zealand, airways from ups from all different
kinds of real airplane companies that really need. Airplanes so
it seems like a pretty good. BET i think their
stock market evaluation is about four billion dollars right.
Speaker 5 (54:11):
NOW faa, approved so.
Speaker 14 (54:14):
Interesting the certification process to be FULLY fa approved is
still like a year or two. Away but under The trump,
administration they're allowing revenue producing commercial flights under eight pilot
programs all around the country In florida And New york And,
louisiana all these different. Places AND beta won the right
to participate in seven out of the eight, programs so
(54:36):
they will be generating revenue this year taking cargo around
all different.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
Places and this location you went to In, Burlington, vermont
is this where this plane is based or where they're
manufactured or what was this location?
Speaker 14 (54:50):
For, yeah So Kyle, clark the, founder is A vermont
guy and he wants to create jobs and a big
factory up there In. Vermont so they actually took us
through the factory where they are building these planes by.
Hand they have a big assembly, line but it's sort
of not very automated at this. POINT i think they're
making their saying they can make like twenty planes a
year up there right, now but they're going to obviously
(55:11):
try and increase that over. Time so it is a
huge facility where they are, experimenting they are, manufacturing they
are designing all that stuff up In, Burlington.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
Vermont, yeah and you said they have orders they're. Selling
so this is a success, story Right this is a big.
Speaker 14 (55:25):
Success story right. NOW i, mean if you bought this
doc in THE ipo Last, november you are sitting on
a loss right. NOW i think the stock is around sixteen.
Dollars they went public at thirty.
Speaker 9 (55:35):
Four it is a.
Speaker 14 (55:35):
You, know it's not a sure thing when this is
going to start generating all the revenue and get THE faa.
Certification there's still some, uncertainty but it seems like a
big success story so. Far they're a big employer up.
Speaker 4 (55:46):
There this might sound, silly but do they plug these
batteries in just like you would an electric car or
how does that?
Speaker 14 (55:53):
Work it is exactly like. That they have a looks
like an oversize car charger on the runway out there
In burlington and they have INSTALLED i think over one
hundred of these all around the country at little. AIRPORTS
i went out In marshfield has a small airport here
where they installed. One so, yeah they charge it just
like a. Car it takes about an hour to charge.
Speaker 2 (56:13):
Up all, Right, aaron what's next to, you? Pal what's
what can you what can you tease out for?
Speaker 6 (56:17):
Us i'm looking into all this is related To beta
actually all the defense technology startups and new companies Around
boston And New england that are looking to benefit from
increased defense.
Speaker 2 (56:31):
Spending, okay it's, great all, right He's Aaron pressman of
The Boston. Globe we do appreciate taking time in joining
us on The New England Business.
Speaker 4 (56:37):
Report, Well, joe that's going to do it for this
edition of The New England Business. Report we are so
happy that everybody could be with us on This, sunday
and we want to wish all of the fathers out
there A Happy Father's, Day.
Speaker 5 (56:50):
Joe Happy Father's, day my. Friend thank you very. Much
absolutely hope that everybody can.
Speaker 4 (56:56):
Join us again Next sunday when we take a little
trip down To Cape odd to see how summer is
going for the businesses down. There in the, meantime have
a great week, everybody and we'll chat again Next sunday
at eight am right here on The voice Of boston
w R k O A m six eighty
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