U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

Ron DeSantis wants to rig Florida's congressional maps against Black voters — but GOP lawmakers think he's going too far.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported on how Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is attempting to push the GOP-controlled legislature to pass a more aggressive gerrymander of the state's congressional maps — in particular urging they carve up a North Florida district spanning from Tallahassee to Jacksonville that exists to allow Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice.

The new report notes that even some Republicans who are normally allied with him are pushing back on the idea.

Florida is a rare example of a Republican-controlled state that was not already gerrymandered going into this decade's redistricting process. The Florida Supreme Court struck down the GOP's original 2011 gerrymander in 2015, citing the state's Fair Districts Amendment, and forced implementation of a fair map. But Republican appointees taking over the state Supreme Court, combined with Florida gaining a new seat from the Census, led some GOP activists to hope the state could draw an aggressive gerrymander that would survive the whole decade, possibly giving Republicans 3 to 4 more seats.

DeSantis has led the charge — but, according to the report, his fellow Republicans in the legislature aren't on board, believing a map that too aggressively denies seats to Black voters won't hold up in court.

It ... shocked even fellow Florida Republicans when, in the midst of a pressure campaign from Donald Trump’s former senior adviser Stephen K. Bannon, DeSantis incited a redistricting battle with his own party, roping the state’s two legislative chambers into the fray and asking the state’s highest court to pick sides," reported Colby Itkowitz, Lori Rozsa, and Michael Scherer. "Days before the Florida state Senate was to vote on new congressional district lines in January, DeSantis presented a dramatically more partisan map that boosted Republican seats and eliminated a district where a plurality of voters are Black."

"The state Senate ignored DeSantis’s last-minute appeal and passed its version, a map that received support from every Republican and all but four Democrats in the chamber," noted the report. "DeSantis responded by asking the state Supreme Court to weigh in on whether his map’s erasure of the 5th Congressional District, where Black Democrats are advantaged, would withstand legal scrutiny ... On Thursday, in a rare legal setback for DeSantis, the state Supreme Court rejected his request for an advisory opinion, saying the governor’s request was 'broad and contains multiple questions that implicate complex federal and state constitutional matters and precedents interpreting the Voting Rights Act of 1965.'"

State Sen. Ray Rodrigues, who heads up redistricting efforts in the Florida Senate for Republicans, put things bluntly: “I’m a proud Republican, a very conservative Republican, but when I was elected, I was sworn into office on an oath to follow and protect the Constitution whether I like it or not. I have a responsibility to be in compliance with our Constitution.”

The Florida State House's proposed map is a bit more favorable to Republicans than the Senate's; it reduces Black voters' representation in the Tampa-based 10th District and makes the currently Democratic-held 7th District in suburban Orlando more Republican-leaning. But neither the House nor Senate plan, which will need to be reconciled in a compromise draw, will be much like the aggressive racial gerrymander that DeSantis sought.

You can read more here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/11/desantis-florida-redistricting/

[Rick Plant]

President Biden to visit Cleveland, Lorain to discuss bipartisan infrastructure law

CLEVELAND — The White House announced Saturday that President Joe Biden will visit Northeast Ohio this coming week to talk about infrastructure and how it affects Ohioans and other Americans.

He is set to visit Cleveland and Lorain on Thursday. Specific times and locations have not been announced.

According to the White House, Biden will "discuss how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law delivers for the American people by rebuilding roads and bridges, upgrading water systems, cleaning up the environment, and creating good-paying, union jobs."

When Biden signed the bill into law in November, he touted the legislation as "a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America." He highlighted provisions that would rebuild America's roads and bridges, as well as expand public transportation and rail travel. He also touched on how the law would replace lead pipes across the country that carry drinking water as well as providing expanded access to high-speed internet.

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/president-biden-to-visit-cleveland-lorain-to-discuss-bipartisan-infrastructure-law

[Rick Plant]

Biden’s Infrastructure Bill Includes an Unprecedented $1.1 Billion for Everglades Revitalization
The money will go toward funding projects in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, a Florida law passed in 2000 that consists of 68 different projects that will cost a total of $23 billion.



ORLANDO, Fla.—When the tide is right, the ink-colored water spreads like a shadow across the aquamarine Indian River Lagoon.

The dark water represents one of the most startling symptoms of what silently is killing the 156-mile lagoon, an estuary on Florida’s east coast that is among the most biologically diverse on the continent: nutrient pollution.

Nutrients are a component of fertilizers used on farm crops and front lawns. In the Indian River Lagoon the pollution has wreaked havoc, nourishing harmful algae blooms that can cloud the historically crystaline water, preventing sunlight from reaching the seagrass undulating beneath the surface. Most notably widespread seagrass losses led in 2021 to a record die-off of some 1,100 manatees in Florida, prompting wildlife agencies to resort to providing supplemental lettuce for starving manatees in the lagoon, where the majority of the deaths occurred.

The problem is among those targeted with an unprecedented $1.1 billion in federal funding aimed at revitalizing Florida’s treasured and troubled Everglades, a watershed responsible for the drinking water of more than 8 million Floridians and the subject of one of the most ambitious attempts at ecological restoration in human history.

In the Indian River Lagoon, the money is intended to improve water quality by helping to manage polluted water flowing from area farms, said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades.

“That black plume of polluted water, which comes from agricultural lands west of the lagoon,” she said, “will no longer exist. So it’s really going to help water quality in that specific section of the Indian River Lagoon.”

The money also is intended to fortify the Everglades against the rising seas and other impacts of climate change. The funding is part of the infrastructure measure President Joe Biden signed into law in November and represents the single largest investment ever in Everglades restoration, according to the White House.

The money comes at a somewhat heady time in Everglades restoration. In recent years, millions of dollars in new funding has helped jumpstart the massive federal-and-state effort, which had languished initially after the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan became law in 2000. Today construction is underway on several CERP projects, and the first major project is complete: a reservoir and engineered wetlands aimed at filtering water of nutrients before the water flows into the south end of the Indian River Lagoon.

Samples and other leaders also celebrated the completion last year of a separate project predating CERP: a major restoration of the Kissimmee River, which along with its tributaries represents the headwaters of the Everglades. 

“We are absolutely seeing more ribbon cuttings occurring and more groundbreakings,” said Kelly Cox, director of Everglades policy at Audubon Florida. “Now we get to see how (the projects are) working and how well they’re working. And from the projects that we’ve already seen come online just in the past several years, we know that Everglades restoration works, and the Kissimmee River restoration project is a good example of that. That project was done in phases, and we saw ecological returns with every single phase of that project.”

The Everglades begin in central Florida with the Kissimmee River, which historically meandered lazily to Lake Okeechobee. The lake, a shallow depression in the land, spilled its excess water over its southern brim, forming a shallow sheet that was the river of grass. Draining large swaths of the Everglades has made modern Florida possible and left the state’s most important freshwater resource on the brink. The new federal money will fund a series of projects together aimed at improving water quality and flow and adding water storage in the Everglades.

For instance, one project relies on yet another reservoir to help improve water quality and address that shadow of dark water that occurs in the south end of the Indian River Lagoon. Another is designed to manage polluted water that flows from western Broward County and eventually ends up in Everglades National Park. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says that project will improve habitat for fish and wildlife, including five federally listed species. Yet another project is meant to improve water flows into Biscayne Bay.


Indian River lagoon is pea-soup green, raising fears of another 'bloom of doom'

Conspicuously missing from the list is one that is considered crucial in restoring the Everglades’ historic flow south: a large reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee in the Everglades Agricultural Area. That reservoir is aimed at alleviating harmful discharges east and west from Lake Okeechobee to fragile coastal estuaries like the Indian River Lagoon, which in recent years triggered widespread blooms of toxic algae. The omission prompted outrage among the state’s Republican leadership, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in 2024 and has made Everglades restoration a priority of his administration. U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) went as far as to characterize the omission as a “middle finger” from the Biden administration for Florida.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency overseeing Everglades restoration, answered Mast’s criticism by saying that the corps remains committed to the reservoir, and construction is scheduled to begin this year. The Army Corps says the remaining work is projected to cost more than $3 billion, more than the $1.9 billion available in the infrastructure measure for restoration projects nationwide.

“That’s the centerpiece of restoration,” said Steve Davis, chief science officer at the Everglades Foundation. “That’s the project that does it all, really. It takes water from Lake Okeechobee. So it reduces discharges to the east and west coasts by substantial amounts, over 50%. And it sends enormous quantities of water south.”

While the new federal money is significant, it is not enough to fully fund CERP, which involves some 68 projects, most massive on their own. Altogether the cost is projected to be some $23 billion.

“We will see some progress, but this is a multigenerational effort,” said Samples of Friends of the Everglades. “We’re going to be waiting until my 13-year-old son is a grown man to see the results of some of these long-term infrastructure projects.”

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11022022/biden-infrastructure-bill-florida-everglades/

[Rick Plant]

Shots fired at Louisville Democratic mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A person fired multiple gunshots at Louisville Democratic mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg in his campaign office Monday morning, missing him but striking his clothing.

"We consider ourselves very fortunate," Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields said at a press conference about a block away from Greenberg's offices in the Butchertown Market building.   

She said a person had been detained by police and no motive was known. "We also have no reason to believe at this time that this individual was acting anything but alone."

Shortly after the shooting, Greenberg tweeted that he and his team were safe and thanked others for their "outpouring of support." He said he would provide an update soon.

Police said they responded to the four-story building about 10:15 a.m. after receiving reports of "an active aggressor." They said multiple shots were fired and it was determined that Greenberg's office had been targeted, So officers evacuated Greenberg and his staff, LMPD said in a statement.

Shields said a round struck a "piece" of Greenberg's clothing but was not more specific.

Besides police, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was called to the scene.

Shields said the police would be investigating the incident "from all angles" to determine a motive. She said it was unknown if the incident could be related to politics, the fact that Greenberg is Jewish or if the person could have had mental issues. 

"We have to really keep an open mind and really just be diligent in taking care of our community," she said.

Matt Goldberg, director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Louisville, noted that Greenberg is an "active member" of the local Jewish community but was cautious about assigning a motive.

"I think until we hear from LMPD or any of the investigators ... that he was specifically targeted because he was Jewish, there isn't anything specifically we're doing," he said of the Jewish community.

"You don't expect to see anything like that in Louisville or anywhere, but to see it for someone you know is very, very frightening," he said. "We're thinking about his family of course and his friends and the people on his campaign."

Other mayoral candidates swiftly commented on the shooting and offered support to Greenberg and his team.

Philip Molestina, a Republican running for mayor, said the news that Greenberg was targeted in a shooting is surreal but the most important thing is the safety of Greenberg and everyone else at his office.

This shooting, he said, "makes it even more important for us to have a safe city and work, all of us together, to make sure that happens regardless of political affiliations or anything else."

David Nicholson, a Democrat in the race, said the news of the shooting led him to take extra security precautions.

"I was immediately notified of the shooting by LMPD, and I have since spoken with Mr. Greenberg," Nicholson said. "While our campaign received no prior threats or indication of danger, my campaign has taken the necessary precautions to protect my family, campaign team and myself."

Greenberg launched his campaign for mayor last year and quickly built up a big fundraising lead (which he has since maintained) in the race to succeed outgoing Mayor Greg Fischer.

Before he got into politics, he worked as CEO of 21c Museum Hotels and also served on the University of Louisville board of trustees for a couple of years. He became a co-owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling alongside Kentucky Sports Radio founder Matt Jones last year and started a firm, Greenberg Group, that's centered on urban revitalization projects.

Runner, trustee, JCPS grad:What to know about Louisville mayor candidate Craig Greenberg

Greenberg has said public safety would be his No. 1 priority if he's elected mayor this year.

He released his public safety plan for Louisville last month, which called for "fully" funding and staffing a "community-oriented police force" and expanding mental health treatment, among other things.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2022/02/14/shots-fired-louisville-mayor-candidate-craig-greenberg-metro-council-president-says/6784596001/

[Rick Plant]

Why accelerationist Proud Boys latched on to big conservative rallies in DC last month



The weekend of Jan. 21-23 brought the annual anti-choice March for Life to Washington, DC, followed two days later by the Defeat the Mandates rally to oppose vaccine mandates. The two events brought thousands of conservatives to the nation’s capital, along with throngs of far-right extremists looking to recruit from their ranks.

A phalanx of members from the avowedly fascist group Patriot Front formed their own column along the March for Life, under heavy police protection as antifascist counter-protesters confronted them. Patriot Front’s appearance, in turn, appeared to act as a magnet for other extremists. Two young men wearing khaki pants, camouflage jackets, work boots and skull masks, as captured in a video by a team member of the veteran-owned open-source intelligence firm Sparverius, showed up and heckled the counter-protesters as Patriot Front members marched past.

One of the men signaled his white power beliefs in ways that were both subtle and blatant: a patch with the red-and-white checkered insignia of the Croatian Legion, a division of the German Army during World War II; stickers on his helmet depicting the image of American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell and the slogan “White Lives Matter”; and a Confederate battle flag patch on his military-style backpack.

Two days later, the two men joined members of the Maryland DC Proud Boys chapter at the Lincoln Memorial for the anti-vaccination rally. Among the group of more than a dozen men, about half wore skull masks. Their coats concealed bulky tactical vests, and they carried heavy backpacks. After marching from the Washington Monument, the Proud Boys entourage gathered at the end of the reflecting pool, holding a position at the edge of the large anti-vaccination crowd and near a handful of counter-protesters clumped together at a nearby knoll. At one point, some of the Proud Boys went over to confront the counter-protesters, but then walked off without incident.

“These accelerationists — the guys wearing skull masks, they wear that because they… were signaling to each other that they are extremists, but to the general public they are telegraphing that they are tough, something to be feared, masculine,” Kristofer Goldsmith, Sparverius’ CEO, told Raw Story. “They’re attracting people who think it’s a drinking and street brawler club, and they’re putting them in a pipeline to extremism that ends in domestic terrorism.”

Goldsmith, who is also a senior fellow at the Innovation Lab of Human Rights First, said the Proud Boys’ public presence in DC last month marked a significant turn, following a year in which members across the country have mostly focused on flashpoints of local controversy like school board meetings.

“That weekend Friday through Sunday, between the anti-choice and anti-vax events, was the first major return to DC after the attack on the Capitol,” Goldsmith said. “Though it wasn’t the same numbers and there wasn’t violence the way there had been the year prior, what it did establish to these groups in their psychology is that it is now safe to return to DC in an election year.”

Members of the Proud Boys group also distributed stickers at the anti-vaccination rally with the Proud Boys logo and text, “We are watching.” When a journalist posted a photo of herself holding up the sticker in front of the crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial on Twitter, the Proud Boys chapter confirmed responsibility with a post of its own on its Telegram channel that read: “Local antifa scum wanted a business card. That’s right, we are watching.

Matthew Kriner, the managing director of the Accelerationist Research Consortium, told Raw Story that he views the text as a signal that the Proud Boys and their affiliates who attended the rally “are looking for circumstances to insert themselves to instigate further violence and destabilize the political system.” Kriner is also a senior research scholar at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

“After January 6th, this stands out to me as something that shows they’re not afraid to engage in instigator behavior, because we saw them do that on January 6th,” Kriner added. “They instigated a crowd at a right-wing event that became a riot.”

The Maryland DC Proud Boys chapter commemorated its appearance at the anti-vaccination rally by posting a photo of a member nicknamed “Ghost” posing with a plate carrier in front of the Washington Monument, accompanied by the text, “We’re back!” Another heavily stylized photo posted on Telegram shows a handful of members, including the neo-Nazi wearing the Croatian Legion patch, marching away from the Washington Monument. A variation of the image posted on Telegram shows the members superimposed on a war-ravaged urban landscape with the chapter logo slapped in the middle.

Members of the chapter did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Raw Story was able to reach Brandon Heffner, who was identified as the recipient of funds from a GiveSendGo campaign to raise money for a recent Christmas toy drive. Heffner told Raw Story that he is not involved in the chapter, but agreed to handle the funds for the toy drive.

Raw Story also left a voicemail at a phone number listed on the Telegram account for a user named “Joe Bonadio,” eliciting no response.

Notwithstanding Heffner’s claim to not be involved in the chapter, a Telegram user named “HEFF,” along with the “Joe Bonadio” account expressed enthusiasm for a planned White Lives Matter rally in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area last March. In a channel set up to promote the planned rally, “HEFF” commented, “#f**kantifa proudboys will be the there [sic] in plain clothes or not,” while “Joe Bonadio” wrote, “I’m with ya.” The person behind the “HEFF” account also appears to have a family member involved in the chapter. A user named “LadyHeff” periodically comments on content on the chapter’s Telegram channel, including a post last month blaming people of color for urban decay in which she wrote, “They can take their diversity and shove it up their *ss.”

The ethno-nationalist content shared on the chapter’s Telegram channel echoes the white power symbols displayed in public by some of its members. Since December, the channel has forwarded at least two posts from Greyson Arnold, a podcaster who has spoken approvingly about Nazi Germany and who once duped a Republican National Committee member into saying that white nationalist Nick Fuentes should have a voice in picking candidates to run for office in Republican primaries. Later that month, the channel for the Maryland DC chapter forwarded a post by Lauren Witzke, a former US Senate candidate from Delaware who has retweeted posts from VDARE, a white nationalist website.

Beyond forwarding content from other white nationalists, the channel has contributed its own white power messaging. Without specifying the target, a Dec. 29, 2021 post declared, “Special place in hell for these people. Day of the rope mutha f**a.”

“Day of the rope” is an explicit reference to The Turner Diaries, a novel written by neo-Nazi William Pierce that inspired the Oklahoma City bombing and an numerous other acts of terrorism and racist violence by perpetrators seeking to emulate the novel’s protagonist by “stockpiling biological weapons, engaging in a racist shooting spree, robbing banks, and assembling pipe bombs with Jewish and Black targets in mind,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“I would portray the Proud Boys as antisemitic, racist bigots; they would not see themselves as such,” said Michael Loadenthal, an advisory board member at the Accelerationist Research Consortium. “It’s undeniable when they start sharing content that is explicitly racist and antisemitic.”

Loadenthal and Goldsmith both said the barriers between Proud Boys and hardcore neo-Nazi groups, always permeable, are becoming increasingly porous.

Goldsmith said antifascist researchers have identified current members of the openly fascist group Patriot Front who had previously been identified as Proud Boys, indicating a migration between the two groups and a radicalization path towards more extreme violence and racism.

Last week, the Maryland DC Proud Boys chapter reshared a propaganda video produced by the fascist media outfit Media2Rise, which was embedded with Patriot Front during its surprise march through DC in December 2021 and produced high-quality video from the event. Goldsmith told Raw Story that one of Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau’s lieutenant’s, Graham Whitson, operates Media2Rise’s online store. Whitson was arrested with Rousseau in August 2020 for plastering Patriot Front stickers on the grounds of county courthouse in Grapevine, Texas.

“Here, we’re establishing the skeleton of how the Proud Boy-fascist pipeline works,” Goldsmith said.

Proud Boys Telegram channels, including the Maryland DC chapter, routinely share content from the “Western Chauvinism” channel, which is named after a primary tenet of Proud Boys doctrine.

“Western Chauvinism produces high-production quality video that is targeting Proud Boys,” Goldsmith said. “It’s shared in Proud Boys channels. It’s encouraging people to embrace fascism as the true law-and-order ideology. I recognize the propaganda videos are deadly serious, and they’re created by people who are deadly serious.

“The actual absurdity of trying to whitewash Hitler and put on pedestal Hitler himself and the rise of the Nazis is deliberately too far,” he continued. “It’s part of the Proud Boys’ claim that ‘we’re not actually Nazis, just edge lords; we’re just trolling the libs.’ The reason we had kids in their early twenties showing up in Charlottesville is they started out on the internet making jokes about the Holocaust, and then they started to believe in it."

https://www.rawstory.com/accelerationist-proud-boys/

[Rick Plant]

They don't even hide it anymore. The GOP is the party of white nationalists and white supremacists.

Arizona Republican hyping far-right event featuring notorious white nationalist: report



The America First Political Action Conference in Orlando is receiving a major boost from a prominent Arizona Republican, The Daily Beast reported Wednesday.

"Organized by white nationalist and 'Unite The Right' attendee Nick Fuentes, the conference is a watering hole for people who think the Conservative Political Action Conference (also next week) needs to use more slurs," Kelly Weill reported. "But the fringe conference is also playing footsie with elected officials, this year with Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers, who promoted the event on Telegram. It’s the second year in a row that an Arizona politician has backed the conference, putting them in league with [Tim 'Baked Alaska' Gionet] and other legally challenged extremists."

The 2021 America First Political Action Conference was addressed by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ). Gosar recently defended Fuentes, who is described as a white nationalist by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"The post was far from Rogers’ first in support of Fuentes, an open bigot. ('This is going to be the most racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying speech in all of Dallas this weekend,' Fuentes boasted of one of his upcoming speeches after he was kicked out of CPAC in 2021.) Rogers has authored at least two dozen fawning posts about Fuentes, according to Left Coast Right Watch," The Beast reported. "Fuentes has returned the favor, using Rogers’ posts to hype AFPAC and even hinting that the state senator might be involved, researcher Arizona Right Wing Watch reported."

The conference is seen as a vehicle for Republicans to reach out to younger racists.

"Both Gosar and Rogers have well-documented ties to the militant right, particularly the paramilitary group the Oath Keepers. Rogers announced her membership to the group several years ago and gave a speech for members in March 2021, while Gosar allegedly told an Arizona Oath Keepers leader that the U.S. was already in a civil war, 'we just haven’t started shooting yet.' But their friendliness with Fuentes and his “America First” movement signals an effort to ingratiate themselves with a younger generation of racists—an effort both cringe-worthy and at times downright dangerous for the Arizona politicians’ constituents," The Beast reported.

Read the full report:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/arizona-state-senator-wendy-rogers-promotes-far-right-event-featuring-hanukkah-basher-baked-alaska

[Rick Plant]

New data shows retail sales increased by 3.8% in January. This is no accident, President Biden has taken concrete action to get Americans back to work, battle COVID-19, and address supply chain issues. Biden's strong leadership is helping our economy continue to build on what has already been a historic period of growth in 2021 moving into 2022.

January retail sales surge 3.8%

NEW YORK (AP) — Fueled by pay gains, solid hiring and enhanced savings, Americans sharply ramped up their spending at retail stores last month in a sign that many consumers remain unfazed by rising inflation.

Retail sales jumped 3.8% from December to January, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, a much bigger increase than economists had expected. Though inflation helped boost that figure, most of January’s gain reflected more purchases, not higher prices.

Last month’s increase was the largest since last March, when most households received a final federal stimulus check of $1,400. The fact that consumer spending remains brisk even after government stimulus has faded — enhanced unemployment aid ended in September — suggests that Americans’ pay is rising enough to drive a healthy pace of spending and economic growth.

Job growth is strong, wages are increasing and household wealth is way up thanks to rapidly rising home values and, until recently, stock prices.

Retail sales rose solidly across the spectrum in January. Sales at general merchandise stores rose 3.6% and at department stores 9.2%. Purchases at furniture and home furnishings stores increased 7.2%. Online sales jumped 14.5%.

Restaurants were an outlier in January: Sales fell 0.9%, likely a reflection of many people refraining from dining out at a time when reported omicron infections were exploding.

Gasoline sales fell 1.3%, possibly a result of the cost and cases of omicron, which rose in tandem, according to Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com.

Since the pandemic erupted two years ago, spending has continued to be heavily weighted toward goods — things that people can own. But as COVID-19 cases decline, Americans are expected to begin spending more on concerts, movies and dinners out.

At the same time, Wednesday’s retail report covers only about one-third of overall consumer spending; it doesn’t include such services as haircuts, hotel stays and plane tickets.

The New York clothing company Untuckit has registered a rebound in recent weeks, with more people preparing for an eventual return to the office, said Aaron Sanandres, the CEO and a co-founder.

“I am optimistic that this time there is a bit more momentum,” Sanandres said.

The omicron variant that emerged in late November caused widespread worker shortages, with many employees calling in sick. Yet the wave of the most recent variant appears to have been short-lived. Reported infections began to decline by mid-January as fast as they rose late last year. Cases have plunged from 436,000 a day two weeks ago to 136,000 Monday.

January’s robust increase in retail purchases followed gains in October and November before a sharp drop in December, a month when sales are normally high. By January, despite surging inflation — consumer prices soared 7.5% last month from 12 months earlier — Americans appeared ready to renew spending.

The strong January report comes as major retailers, including Walmart, are slated to release their fiscal fourth-quarter financial figures, starting as early as Thursday. Bryan Eshelman, a managing director in the retail practice at AlixPartners, believes the earnings reports, which cover November through January, will be strong as stores have been able to wield their pricing power. But he questions whether consumers will continue to pay full price or go back to their old behaviors of waiting for a sale.

“Will retailers be willing to have the discipline to hold the line?” he asked.

The volatility in retail sales data is also emerging after the pandemic and related supply crunches drastically altered the behavior of Americans, particularly at the end of 2021. Major retailers companies urged people to shop early to avoid shortages, and Americans did, in huge numbers.

Services spending, at least in some sectors, is rising along with goods purchases. Joseph Aquino, who runs a real estate services firm in New York, says leasing activity for retail spaces is picking up, recovering from a steep downturn in that sector.

Still, the sector’s recovery has a long way to go. Rents on Madison Avenue had ranged from $1,500 to $1,800 a square foot before the pandemic, Aquino said. Now, the same space is now going for between $600 to $800 per square foot.

“There is a sense of optimism, ”Aquino said. “People are realizing that the virus is slowly dissipating.”

https://apnews.com/article/business-retail-sales-17b82619e44299b2fd6f8b83882b1658