Extroverting

Tag: Northeast

  • Dentists Cheer CT Law Preserving Water Fluoride Requirements | CT News Junkie

    … Connecticut has a defense should the Trump administration decide to … CT Cannabis Producers Expect More Challenges Due To State Regulation.

  • 3rd Circuit Says Risk Of Harm Justifies Disarming Pot User – Law360

    Law360 (July 15, 2025, 1:35 PM EDT) — The Third Circuit has found that illegal drug users, including cannabis … New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Personal …

  • The Bullet Train That Isn’t

    The Bullet Train That Isn’t

    Commentary: I’m reading a history of the interstate highway system, partially because I sense that the whole thing is widely overrated. Its construction massively disrupted the economics of small towns. It ruined the look and feel of large cities. The cost overruns were enormous and it took far longer to complete than anyone estimated.

    One has to wonder what inspired this thing to which hardly anyone objected at the time. The United States had the world’s most marvelous system for passenger travel. It was built with treasure, blood, sweat, and tears. It was the achievement of the ages. After the Second World War, it could have been expanded. Instead it was abandoned for the car.

    This is because the American automotive industry had developed political power. They owned the politicians in a way that the train industry did not. Plus, and this is weird to say, American elites were extremely impressed by the automotive industry built by Germany, along with the legendary Autobahn. The United States wanted its own version.

    By 1952, it was a done deal. The United States would invest in cars and bail on trains. This was pitched as more consistent with American ideals of freedom and independence. Why hop on a train when you can drive anywhere in your own car?

    The results were spectacular in part but the dangers of the cars were never really considered as part of the plan. Giving everyone a 1.5 ton machine to maneuver in whichever way the driver wanted obviously introduces certain complications. Even now I feel it every day when driving on highways. I think “This is such a crazy system destined for disaster.”

    Meanwhile, Europe, the UK, and China have spent the last decades heavily investing in trains, which in turn has made Americans jealous yet again. Anyone who travels knows this. European trains are wonderful, affordable, and luxurious in ways that no one experiences in the United States. Indeed, train travel for Americans is unusual outside the Northeast Corridor.

    That’s when California, which always imagines itself to be on top of all the new trends, conjured up the idea of a “bullet train,” a high-speed rail, that would extend from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The developers and lawmakers in the sunny state would copy China and transport people in record time all over the state. Oh how jealous will be the rest of the state!

    The year was 1995. It’s now 30 years later. The state has spent at least $38 billion on this thing, with help from the federal government. Massive resources have been diverted to this monstrosity. There were environmental permits, eminent domain disputes, property purchases, and endless tangles regarding management.

    In all these years, what do they have to show for it? There is a framework in place in the middle section of the state, Merced to Bakersfield, covering exactly 119 miles. This is a length that can be travelled by car in two and a half hours, thus defeating the whole point of the high-speed rail. What’s more, the tracks haven’t been laid.

    After 30 years, most of what has been installed is already dilapidated and rusting since no one really accounted for maintenance costs. Obviously not one single passenger has ridden the train. Not one ticket has been sold.

    The Trump administration is livid about this disaster and has decided to cut California off. Very obviously, there will be no train. Not even allowing for another century of construction at this pace would realize the dream. It’s simply not going to happen.

    This is all a huge embarrassment.

    I looked up the website for the project. They have abandoned the whole idea, or so it seems. Now it is being pitched as an economic engine for California business. Here I quote:

    • An Economic Engine for California
    • Over 15,000 high quality jobs created
    • 171 miles under design with 119 of that in active construction
    • Engaging more than 900 small businesses
    • $22 billion in economic impact

    Hint: there is a difference between an economic engine and a cash incinerator.

    Pity the webmaster who had to write those words. It includes truth-telling admissions: “As the Merced and Bakersfield extensions approach 60 percent design and as additional funding continues to become available, the Authority and its Board will determine appropriate construction package scope, cost, schedule, and delivery methods. No construction agreements have been developed at this time.”

    New estimate for the first leg of completion: 2033.

    One part is missing: passengers. Another part: completion. Active construction means nothing. I could be making mud pies in my backyard and claim that a skyscraper is in active construction, not to mention jobs being created!

    There is even a report to the legislature including a photo of a fantasy train. It is packed with pictures of people moving stuff around, driving in bolts, gathering in teams, lifting large beams with cranes, and so on, and one picture of a train that is marked as a rendering. I feel awful for the people who wrote this report. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig!

    Clearly, this whole thing has become a boondoggle for the ages. The report reveals Soviet levels of cope. It’s a perfect plan for bankruptcy. It would take the entire GDP of the West plus a thousand years to get this done.

    All of which raises the question: Why is this not happening? Maybe it is true that the United States just cannot build things anymore. Too much bureaucracy, too little skill and work ethic, too much complacency with existing prosperity, and therefore not much inspiration to do anything big and new. I cannot say for sure.

    There is clearly the problem of private property. Despite California’s love of the collective, its residents are fanatics for their property rights. They sue each other if a tree limb from a neighbor grows one inch off the fence. I can easily imagine that the authorities have faced impossible legal challenges just getting access to build.

    I’m tempted just to resort to pure economic logic here. Socialism doesn’t work and this is a socialist project. There is no incentive to complete or even do anything. There are no inputs and outputs that reflect profitability metrics. Accounting doesn’t matter really. It’s only just money in and money out. The process of burning through resources has become an end in itself.

    It is plainly not true that Americans cannot build things anymore. There are skyscrapers still going up in New York City and many other cities. U.S. infrastructure is not great but it is not all falling down tomorrow. True, most actual construction in this country is privately funded with discipline over cost and a deadline to meet. That does make a difference.

    Look at what happened to the charging stations that were supposed to be built by the feds over these years. They blew through $7.5 billion and ended up creating only, at most, 35 places with 226 stations. Absolutely pathetic by any standard.

    That said, trains in Europe, Japan, and China are just fine and they are government-funded. Somehow they work. Sure, they are costly and not profitable but they exist and carry passengers and serve a public purpose. It seems that other countries are better at public funding and projects than the United States.

    If you think about the U.S. space program, you see the same thing. Over many decades, the federal government has decided it is better off contracting out to Elon Musk, who has even been tasked with rescuing NASA astronauts from the International Space Station because government could not do it.

    America is not broken. The U.S. government is. Remember that when people claim that we should have single-payer medical service or some other new grand program. The United States is really bad at socialism, even worse than Europe or China. But the U.S. is still good at private enterprise.

    In envisioning its high-speed rail system, California hoped to be on the cutting edge. Instead it has become a paradigmatic case of bureaucratic failure, and a laughingstock the world over.

    About the author: Jeffrey A. Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press, as well as 10 books in five languages, most recently “Liberty or Lockdown.” He is also the editor of “The Best of Ludwig von Mises.” He writes a daily column on economics for The Epoch Times and speaks widely on the topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

    Editor’s Note: For more on highway insanity in Oklahoma. click here for Pike Off OTA. We include their link, logos, and art not because they are advertising (they don’t), but because they are correct in opposing the Oklahoma Highway Industrial Complex – Politicians with bulldozers should not be allowed to trump truth.

  • This City is the “Cannabis Capital” of Massachusetts – Live 95.9

    Small but mighty Rhode Island has nearly 400 miles of shoreline along Narragansett Bay—an impressive feat considering the state sits on just 1,214 …

  • Inside the Bob’s Discount Furniture Reality Show: Couples Clash to Create Marketing Magic

    Inside the Bob’s Discount Furniture Reality Show: Couples Clash to Create Marketing Magic

    Of course you love your partner. But do you trust their taste?

    This question — familiar to anyone who has had a screaming match with their significant other in a furniture store — is at the heart of Till Décor Do Us Part, a new six-episode social-first reality series produced by Bob’s Discount Furniture.

    The show, which debuted July 10, showcases one partner shopping for furniture at a Bob’s store in Yonkers, N.Y., while the other, along with host Gabby Bryan, watches and comments in real time from the sidelines. (Viewers also can shop for the furniture that the couples spar over at the Till Décor Do Us Part page on the Bob’s website.)

    The patented reality show twist? Each couple has different, sometimes clashing tastes, but each shopping partner is tasked with creating the non-shopping partner’s dream room. Among the couples are a new girlfriend taking on a bachelor pad that currently has little more than a TV and a couch; a sentimental mamma’s boy watching his partner take over his childhood home; and a jiu-jitsu bro going head-to-head with his minimalist girlfriend. Let the hijinks commence…

    But behind those hijinks is some solid marketing strategy. Retail TouchPoints got the inside scoop from Bob’s Chief Marketing Officer Steve Nesle.

    The Target Audience: Content-Hungry Consumers

    “The catalyst for this idea came out of necessity,” said Nesle in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Everyone isn’t rushing out there to consume advertising content, but they are rushing out to consume content. In a challenging macroeconomic environment, you can do one of two things: circle the wagons, or lean into it. We had to lean in.”

    Each episode will drop on successive Thursdays, accessible via Bob’s new @TillDecorDoUsPart handle across TikTok, Meta and YouTube. Both before and after the drops Bob’s will continue to publish content to the channels related to that couple, said Nesle: “We’re building out the cinematic universe of these couples above and beyond the actual episode.”

    To that end, Till Décor Do Us Part will feature an always-on TikTok and Instagram content strategy with elements such as:

    • Find the Bob: A Where’s Waldo-style furniture hunt;
    • Keep It or Chuck It, where host Gabby Bryan decides the fate of questionable décor;
    • Furniture Eulogies: Heartfelt sendoffs for “interesting” (note the quote marks) design choices; and
    • Couch Therapy, whereBryan helps couples compromise, one loveseat at a time.

    Leveraging the Inherent Tension of Conflicting Design Priorities

    Bob’s Discount Furniture developed the show via a “relatively quick process,” said Nesle, noting that some hurdles are inherent in the format. “Unlike advertising production where everything is carefully scripted, with all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed, this is unscripted reality,” he noted. “Our job is to create all the conditions to let life happen, and then we’re there with the cameras.”

    Asked if he was concerned that the conflicts between the couples might balloon into something irreconcilable, Nesle wryly commented that “it would have been a bad strategy to create the conditions that would lead to a bunch of breakups. There’s a lot of tension when it comes to something as personal as design, and we recognized early on that that was a natural tension — we wouldn’t need to look that far to find it.”

    Bob’s internal production company worked with creative agency Gale and media agency Horizon Next to develop and produce the series: “It’s out of the box, and that’s in the Bob’s DNA,” said Nesle. “This is yet another organic and authentic way to tell our story — to bring people into the brand and expose them to our assortment and our in-store experience.”

    In May 2025 Bob’s announced it would open 20 new stores this year and expand into the Southeast U.S. for the first time. The retailer is nearing the 200-store milestone.

  • MarTech Interview with Haley Trost, Group Product Marketing Manager @ Braze

    MarTech Interview with Haley Trost, Group Product Marketing Manager @ Braze

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    What does it take to truly get personalization right in the modern marketing ecosystem? Haley Trost, Group Product Marketing Manager at Braze weighs in with some pointers in this MarTech Interview by MarTech Series:

    _________

    Hi Haley, tell us more about your time at Braze and journey in Martech?

    I’ve been on the Braze product marketing team for nearly five years, working across a wide range of product areas, but today, I focus specifically on marketing our core email, app, and web channels. I started my career at a startup that I often describe as “Braze-lite”: a single-channel SMS platform built for a single industry (education). That early experience sparked my interest in how transformative a little nudge can be, whether it’s a text that inspires a student to enroll in college or a product recommendation that helps you find the perfect Father’s Day gift.

    What’s kept me excited about working in martech is how often I see our work come to life in the wild. I’m a customer of many brands that use Braze, so it’s always fascinating and rewarding to watch how our platform powers the moments I experience personally. Just last night I redeemed a loyalty promo when ordering dinner, and it was oddly gratifying to tell my husband, “That was a Braze Content Card!”

    Can you share more about Braze’s latest enhancements that can enable marketers to drive better personalization practices?

    Personalization is often treated like a switch: you either have it or you don’t. In reality, personalization is a spectrum. At one end, it’s a first name in a subject line. Technically personalized? Sure. But meaningful? Not really.

    Today’s consumers expect more. They want brands to understand their values, anticipate their needs, and engage in ways that feel personal, not programmed or purely transactional. It’s the difference between “How did they know that?” and “That’s exactly what I needed.”

    That shift requires two things: trustworthy data and the ability to act on real-time signals. Most brands have plenty of data. The challenge is using it responsibly, transparently, and in a way that adds genuine value. Without the right context, even the best-intentioned message can become a distraction.

    Braze has always believed that trust is earned. Over a decade ago, before “first-party data” became a buzzword, we built our platform on the idea that customer engagement should feel more like a relationship—you listen, you show up when needed, and you say the right thing.

    We just launched three new solutions in this area, including Canvas Context, which addresses one of the biggest scaling challenges marketers face: how do you create unique experiences for every customer without building infinite campaigns? It works by letting marketers add temporary, situation-specific variables (like flight time or order date) to a journey to personalize timing, logic, and messaging to each customer, turning a single Canvas into virtually infinite possible customer journeys.

    We also built RCS and Banners to expand where these dynamic, meaningful interactions can actually happen. Whether they’re browsing your website, exploring your app, or scrolling through their messages, customers expect marketers to keep up. RCS is the next generation of SMS, with richer, more interactive experiences delivered within the native Messages app, while Banners sit naturally within the app or website, updating with personalized content for each visitor without feeling like they’re competing for attention.

    In our data-saturated landscape, brands must grasp their customers’ immediate context and needs. Success isn’t about visibility alone – it’s about delivering the perfect message at the precise moment that creates meaningful connections with the people they’re engaging.

    What challenges do modern marketers face when it comes to scaling personalized marketing campaigns?

    The biggest challenge isn’t lack of data, but lack of data intelligence. Marketers are drowning in information but struggling to turn it into meaningful actions across channels. Building unique experiences for every customer sounds great in theory, but with millions of customers across multiple channels, the complexity becomes overwhelming and it simply doesn’t scale. Marketers need tools that can interpret and act on real-time cues.

    Marketers are also reimagining personalization in a first-party data world, getting smarter about the data they have rather than relying on third-party insights. When customers willingly share their information, it creates a foundation for helpful personalization that doesn’t feel invasive. To build that trust, marketers must respect consent and turn each volunteered detail into immediate, visible value.

    Marketing Technology News: Martech Interview with Meena Ganesh, Senior Product Marketing Manager @ Box AI

    How can modern marketers drive impacting and meaningful customer engagements in today’s multi-channel environment?

    The companies doing this well understand that each channel serves different purposes for the same person. Customers don’t think in channels, they think in journeys, where each touchpoint should feel like the same conversation picking up exactly where the last one left off. A relevant push notification should reinforce what they just saw on your site. An email follow-up should align with their in-app behavior.

    The key is real-time decisioning at the moment of data ingestion, so when a customer takes an action—makes a purchase, opens a message, browses a product—your platform instantly interprets that signal, determines the optimal response, and delivers it on the most relevant touchpoint. That means you also need your data and your channels to coexist in the same platform, so you can use interactions happening on one channel to inform actions on another.

    Can you highlight a little about some brands across the world that have got the personalization game right?

    The brands getting personalization right aren’t guessing what customers want, they’re reading the signals and responding accordingly. Instead of just segmenting by age or location, they’re paying attention to how customers engage, when they make purchases, and where they are in their journey.

    Max is a good example – their personalization framework balances what they implicitly know about a viewer with what the viewer explicitly shares with them. For example, Max might recommend a certain movie to a viewer based on what that viewer watched recently. The viewer is indirectly telling Max what type of content they’re interested in.

    But when preferences aren’t clear – they directly ask! Their fun in-app quizzes, like “Which Hogwarts House are you in?”, double as engagement and smart first-party data collection. This blended approach builds trust, fuels better recommendations, and sets the stage for more personal, high-performing campaigns.

    Another great example is Kayo Sports, which delivers 1:1 personalized experiences with AI determining the optimal message, creative, channel, timing, frequency, and promotions for each individual subscriber. Their sophisticated AI-powered personalization system has delivered a 14% increase in customers reactivating within 12 months of churning, an 8% increase in average annual occupancy, and a 105% increase in cross-selling.

    These brands understand that timing and context matter more than knowing someone’s zip code. They’re responding to actual behavior rather than making assumptions based on broad categories.

    How will AI impact the overall marketing game and how will future marketers be able to use AI effectively to drive deeper personalization and relevance?

    AI is reshaping the personalization landscape by making true 1:1 experiences at scale finally possible. It empowers marketers to engage with each customer as an individual, tailoring content, timing, and messages based on real-time signals. We see AI as a powerful enabler of this shift. It takes on the heavy lifting of analyzing data, identifying patterns, and optimizing journeys, so that marketers can focus on strategy, creativity, and human connection.

    The exciting part is predictive personalization, using AI to anticipate what customers need next, not just responding to past behavior. But as AI gets more sophisticated and accessible, brands need to be thoughtful about privacy and consent. The goal isn’t using AI to send more messages, it’s using data to be more strategic about when and how you reach them.

    A few ways in which your own team at Braze does this for now?

    One of the sort of meta things about being on the marketing team at Braze is that we are marketers using Braze to market Braze to marketers. We actually use our own platform to keep our customers engaged. First, we combine what we know about an account, like business size and industry, with user-level signals, like feature usage or content engagement, to deliver targeted recommendations at just the right moment. For example, we might send an email with ideas for what to do next right after a user launches their first campaign.

    We also blend implicit signals with explicit preferences. We collect preferences from users directly in the dashboard, so we know if they are looking for product tips, learning resources, webinars, etc and can proactively share new resources related to those preferences with them on a regular basis.

    Five takeaways you’d leave everyone in marketing and martech with before we wrap up?

    • Personalization is a spectrum, not a switch. Don’t settle for just using basic data like names and purchase history while missing the deeper signals about timing and context. Push toward anticipating needs before customers even realize them and delivering real value in those moments.
    • Think of journeys, not channels. Customers don’t want to be bombarded on every application, they want consistent, contextually relevant experiences that feel like one continuous conversation, regardless of where they interact with your brand.
    • Real-time responsiveness beats static segmentation. The future of personalization is about listening in the moment and anticipating accordingly, not assuming what someone might want based on demographic profiles.
    • Scale requires smart architecture. You can’t build personalized experiences for millions of customers with manual processes. Invest in platforms and technologies that can process data and make engagement decisions at the speed of customer behavior.
    • Let AI do the grunt work so you can get creative. AI handles data crunching and optimization, but it can’t write compelling stories or understand what actually moves people. Use it to free up your brain for the stuff that matters—the creative thinking and storytelling that makes brands stick.

    Marketing Technology News: Cross-Department Collaboration with Marketing Workflow Automation: Enhancing Alignment Between Sales, Customer Service, and Marketing Teams

    About Braze

    Braze is a leading customer engagement platform that empowers brands to Be Absolutely Engaging.™

    About Haley Trost

    Haley Trost, is Group Product Marketing Manager at Braze

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  • Mainers’ vehicle data is wrongly at risk | Opinion

    By choosing not to sign a bill clarifying the state’s Automotive Right to Repair law, the governor has left consumers in limbo.

  • Connecticut AG Enforces Privacy Compliance Action Against TicketNetwork

    On July 8, 2025, the Connecticut Attorney General (AG) publicly announced an enforcement action against TicketNetwork for violations of the CT …

  • Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce Announces 2025 Beacon of Excellence Honorees

    … cannabis dispensary serving customers with a smile. The Frosted Nug Is Redefining Craft Cannabis in New Jersey · Triple C Housing Named a 2025 NJ …

  • 24 states have legalized marijuana for medical and recreational use. Where does Indiana stand?

    New Jersey. New Mexico. New York. Ohio. Oregon. Rhode Island.