RIEHLE DECLINES SKI AREAS ASSOCIATION JOB
Parker Riehle, whom the National Ski Areas Association recently announced as its new president, replacing outgoing chief Michael Berry, is not taking the job. Riehle, who spent 19 years with the Ski Vermont trade group, including the past 11 years as president, can’t leave his home state of Vermont.
“After a great deal of deliberation … I have decided that I unfortunately need to decline the recent appointment to be the president & CEO of NSAA due to personal reasons that preclude our ability to leave Vermont and the New England area,” Riehle said in a statement released to NSAA members this week.
Berry will remain as president while the Lakewood-based association, which represents 303 ski areas and 370 resort industry supplier, continues it search for a new candidate.
China reportedly closes bitcoin exchanges.
BEIJING» Regulators have ordered Chinese bitcoin exchanges to close, two business newspapers reported Thursday, after uncertainty about the digital currency’s future in China caused its price to plunge.
Regulators in Shanghai, the country’s financial center, gave verbal instructions to exchange operators to shut down, China Business News and 21st Century Economic Report said on their websites. They gave no other details.
Bitcoin’s value tumbled 15 percent Thursday to about $3,300. The famously volatile currency has shed about a third of its value since Sept. 1 but is up from about $600 a year ago.
JPMorgan Chase to invest in Chicago.
CHICAGO» JPMorgan Chase & Co. says it plans to invest $40 million over three years in neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West Sides to create economic opportunity.
Bank officials said Thursday that poverty, racial and economic inequities, and a lack of opportunity are factors behind Chicago’s gun violence. CEO Jamie Dimon says it is incumbent on business leaders to collaborate with government and the community to develop solutions.
Arizona courts Amazon with a cactus.
ARIZ.» Forget TUCSON, flowers. Southern Arizona economic leaders have sent Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos a Saguaro cactus ahead of Tucson’s proposal to become the site for the company’s second headquarters.
The giant online retailer announced last week that it was looking for a home for its second corporate headquarters or HQ2. The planned project is expected to cost Amazon $5 billion. Once completed, it could house as many as 50,000 workers.
Wisconsin OKs $3B Foxconn deal.
MADISON, WIS .
» The Wisconsin Assembly sent a $3 billion incentive package for Taiwanbased Foxconn to Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday, signing off on a deal to lure the electronics giant to the state with the biggest subsidy to a foreign company in U.S. history. The bill approved on a bipartisan 64-31 vote would make $2.85 billion available to Foxconn Technology Group in cash payments if it invests $10 billion and hires 13,000 workers.
Court rejects online sales tax law.
S.D.» South Dakota’s PIERRE,
Supreme Court has struck down a law that would require out-ofstate retailers to collect sales taxes on in-state purchases.
The state expected and welcomed Wednesday’s defeat in a case that eventually could have national implications for e-commerce. Attorney General Marty Jackley hopes to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider rulings it has issued that exempt retailers from having to collect sales taxes in states where they have no physical presence.