Opinion by Sandy Tolan Updated 1532 GMT (2332 HKT) February 20, 2021 Sandy Tolan ( @sandy_tolan ) is the author of three books, including "Me and Hank," about his boyhood hero Hank Aaron, and "The Lemon Tree," now out in a children's edition. He is a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN. (CNN) In January, as Covid cases spiked in California, refrigerated morgue trucks rolled into Los Angeles, ICUs overflowed , oxygen supplies depleted and full ambulances waited in lines for hours , my wife, Andrea, and I faced a dilemma. The two of us had spent Christmas in Tucson, and planned to drive home to Los Angeles, but our 11-year-old son was in Florida with his biological dad. Andrea had a plane ticket to bring Wyatt back. But flying, especially out of Los Angeles International Airport , seemed too risky. Better to stay at super-clean Airbnbs, order contactless food, and drive across the country to Miami. And so on January 18 we embarked on the strangest of American road trips, crossing eight states and back, 6,000 miles in 18 days: a surreal and spectacular journey, sure to reveal truths about our battered nation, our resilient people, and ourselves. A trailer with "WYATT" written on the back reminded Sandy Tolan and his wife, Andrea Portes, of why they were driving across the United States. It was quiet and chilly for southern Arizona, maybe 35 degrees, when the eastern sky in the Patagonia hills, just north of the border, began to yellow. A cloudless day, soon to warm; a good day for traveling east into Texas. We rolled through dun-colored hills dotted with mesquite and scrub oak, dipping into washes, past ranches and brick farmhouses. To pass the time we listened to Barack Obama narrate his story in "A Promised Land," his voice a reassurance that we were easing ...
Tombstone
Kraft improves Cadbury offer after sale to Nestle
LONDON (AP) — Kraft Foods Inc. improved its hostile takeover offer for British chocolate and gum maker Cadbury PLC after selling its North American pizza business for $3.7 billion to Nestle, which confirmed it would not make a rival bid. Kraft said it would use the money to increase the proportion of cash in its offer after its deal with Nestle, which includes pizza brands such as Tombstone and Jack’s in the U.S. Nestle, which some had speculated could make its own bid for the Cadbury, ruled itself out of any race to buy the U.K. company. Cadbury shares were down 1.7 percent at 791.50 pence on the London Stock Exchange. Nestle share rose 1.5 percent to 50.95 Swiss francs. Jeremy Batstone-Carr, analyst at Charles Stanley & Co., said Kraft’s move was short of a knockout offer. “Importantly, this offer is not yet said to be final,” he said. “While we note the weakness in Cadbury’s share price on today’s news, implying that the market now views Cadbury’s chance of survival at around 50-50, we continue to take the view that, with the offer at its present level, Cadbury can do enough to survive” as an independent company, Batstone-Carr added. Kraft, whose brands include Philadelphia cream cheese and Oreo cookies, extended the deadline for Cadbury shareholders to accept its offer to 1300 GMT (8 a.m. EST) on Feb. 2, and said it would update the market later Tuesday on the level of acceptances so far. Nestle’s brief statement left Kraft still the only declared bidder for Cadbury, though the British maker of Dairy Milk chocolate says it has received expressions of interest from The Hershey Co. of the United States and Italy’s Ferrero International SA. Kraft, based in Northfield, Illinois, said it would use the proceeds from the pizza sale, estimated to be 60 pence per Cadbury share, to fund a partial cash alternative to its cash and shares offer worth 9.8 billion pounds ($16.3 billion). “Kraft Foods is doing this because of the desire ...
Stocks futures mixed ahead of open as dollar falls
Stock investors are expected to slow their pace of buying Tuesday following a big rally on the first trading day of the new year. Stock index futures were narrowly mixed, not surprising a day after the Dow Jones industrials soared more than 150 points on upbeat manufacturing reports in the U.S. and China. In corporate news early Tuesday, Kraft Foods Inc. said it will revise its hostile takeover offer for British chocolate and gum maker Cadbury PLC, offering more cash funded by the sale of its North American pizza business to Nestle. Nestle, which paid $3.7 billion for Kraft’s pizza operations — including the Tombstone and Jack’s brands in the U.S. — ruled itself out of a potential bidding war for Cadbury. Tuesday brings economic data from November, including a Commerce Department report on factory orders and the National Association of Realtors’ numbers on pending home sales. Analysts expect factory orders to have risen a moderate 0.5 percent, according to a Thomson Reuters survey. The report is due out at 10 a.m. EST. The Realtors’ report is also expected at 10 a.m. EST. Investors were also awaiting, on Friday, perhaps the most critical economic report, the Labor Department’s assessment of employment during December. Dow futures rose 5, or 0.1 percent, to 10,524. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures is unchanged at 1,128.80, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 0.25, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,886.50. Asian stock markets were up earlier in the day Tuesday, still gaining momentum from Monday’s manufacturing data. European markets were relatively flat. Meanwhile, bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.82 percent from 3.83 percent late Monday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, was unchanged from 0.07 percent. The dollar mostly fell against other major currencies, while gold prices rose. Oil prices closed in on ...
