The nameless and faceless American officials who’ve apparently been running the country, since US President Joe Biden has been busy perfecting his Weekend At Bernie’s routine during his final weeks in office, told the Western press that Biden had authorized American long range missile (ATACMS) strikes into Russian territory. Go ahead, Joe, tell ‘em! But apparently Joe didn’t want to “tell ‘em,” choosing instead to wander off into the Amazonian jungle when asked about it during a trip to Brazil. That also just happens to be where the good hallucinogenic plants are that would allow any remaining functional brain cells to forget about his pratfalling into a potential third world war. How far inside Russia are we even talking here? Who knows. Joe’s still on safari, at least in the clinical, psychological sense. So enter “Jungle” Josep Borrell, EU diplomacy chief, who once infamously stood in front of a bunch of European diplomatic students and referred to Europe as a “garden” and the developing world as a “jungle.” It was Borrell who had to clarify for the entire world that what Joe really means is that he’s giving Ukraine the ability to strike 300km into Russia. Guess we’re just supposed to take his word for it, then, since America doesn’t have a manager on shift? Then the Western press further specified that it was only really supposed to apply to Kursk region. Source: Trust me, bro. Then these same press sources relayed that it was only because Biden didn’t like North Koreans being in Ukraine on Russia’s side (there’s still no proof of that claim, but it’s already been pushed into the realm of assumed truth). Can’t have Russia internationalizing this conflict, critics say, even though the West has literally adopted the strategy of trying to drag the entire planet into it, either by trying to coax them onto their sanctions bandwagon or emitting clarion calls for foreign fighters on Ukraine’s side. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky did his best impression of an employee left to manage the shop while all the folks in charge were out for lunch. “Strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves,” he said . If and when those missiles do “speak,” they’ll be saying, “Yo, Washington sent me.” Because no one’s letting the Ukrainians do any driving that doesn’t involve sitting on an adult’s lap. Why? Well, because Ukraine wasted zero time in crashing one of the rare F-16 fighter jets gifted by the West. A German government coalition lawmaker told Der Spiegel earlier this year that the country’s Leopard 2 battle tanks have virtually all been blown up or are broken down and sitting in the repair shop, and the Ukrainian forces are reportedly even further aggravating the damage by attempting repairs. So Russia knows that Western long-range missiles, which only Western military personnel can operate, aren’t being fired by Kiev. For Washington to even suggest otherwise would be like the driver of a car trying to pawn off responsibility for a crash on the toddler in the backseat with the toy “turn and learn” steering wheel. Slicing through the whole charade, Russian President Vladimir Putin amended Moscow’s nuclear doctrine to hold co-responsible a nuclear state that assists a non-nuclear state, like Ukraine, in targeting Russian territory. The Western establishment has taken the amendment as a political move. Probably because they considered Washington’s ATACMS use policy escalation purely political, too, just tossing it out into the public domain through the establishment press about as casually as order suggestions for the next pizza night. It’s not like Putin is going to actually use nukes or anything, they figure. Guess the idea is just to find out exactly how far they can go in hitting Russian soil with Western weapons until they’re proven wrong, then? Brilliant idea. It’s not like Putin didn’t make NATO’s militarization and Nazification of Ukraine very specific red lines and then reacted when they were crossed, much to NATO’s apparent shock and amazement. Whatever happened to the West’s insistence on stopping Putin in Ukraine so he doesn’t rampage through Europe like King Kong? Or how about NATO saying a year ago that he wanted a full-blown war with the alliance? Now suddenly they’re staking planetary peace entirely on their apparently abundant confidence in Putin’s benevolence and aversion to war when it comes to nothing less than targeting and striking Russian territory directly with their own weapons while they pretend that Zelensky isn’t just relegated to making the French fries? And all this without a single debate or vote in US Congress for the record? Guess they’re in a rush to get what they want before the new manager arrives – because incoming President-elect Donald Trump has already made it clear that he’d de-escalate. At least the Washington back room perma-bros responsible for concocting policy should have the integrity to wait until someone can actually be held accountable by voters, history, and the rest of the planet, for potentially kicking off a direct war between the US and Russia. Because Biden could hardly even be held accountable for what he ordered for breakfast.Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Whysuper ace 777 login 。

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Kaylene Smikle scored 16 points and made a couple key baskets down the stretch to help No. 10 Maryland hold off George Mason 66-56 in a matchup of unbeatens Saturday at the Navy Classic. The Terrapins (7-0) led by just two when Smikle stole the ball and made a layup while being fouled. The free throw pushed the lead to 58-53. Then a putback by Smikle put Maryland up by seven. The Terps won despite shooting 13 of 26 on free throws. George Mason (6-1) trailed by 10 at halftime before outscoring Maryland 18-7 in the third quarter. The Patriots' final lead was 49-48 in the fourth after a jumper by Kennedy Harris. Harris led George Mason with 26 points. Maryland is off to its best start since winning its first 12 games in 2018-19. George Mason: The Patriots have lost all nine meetings with Maryland, but it's been more competitive of late. The Terps won 86-77 last year, and this game was more competitive than the final score suggested. Maryland: After a down season by their standards, the Terps are off to a nice start, but the free-throw problems in this game nearly cost them. With the score 55-53, George Mason had a chance to tie, but the Patriots never really recovered after Smikle swiped the ball from Harris and went the other way for a three-point play with 3:08 remaining. Although Maryland was awful at the line, at least the Terps got there. George Mason was only 3 of 8 from the stripe, and the Terps held the Patriots to 32% shooting from the field. George Mason faces Navy in this event Sunday. Maryland takes on Toledo. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketballMedtronic (NYSE:MDT) Stock Price Down 0% – Should You Sell?

Final regular-season games loom large in determining conference championship matchupsAP News Summary at 11:07 a.m. EST

Trudeau says fall of Assad 'ends decades of brutal oppression' for SyriaPlane Crash: Putin apologises to Azerbaijan without claiming responsibility

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One of the most impressive features in is the . It is a completely new UI element that showcases ongoing activities on the phone and appears on the lock screen. However, Now Bar is currently compatible only with a few stock apps. Let's have a closer look at it. Now Bar is a gorgeous-looking feature in One UI 7 The Now Bar on One UI 7.0 displays ongoing activities, like music playback and an active timer, on Galaxy phones. It is compatible with the following apps and activities: It is a pill-shaped UI element that first appears on the left side of the status bar at the top of the screen with related controls (pause, stop, etc). When you click it, it maximizes to a pill-shaped bar at the top of the screen. When you lock the phone's screen, the Now Bar appears at the bottom of the lock screen. You can watch it in action in our in-depth video below. When you play audio or video, the Now Bar appears with album art and music playback controls (previous track, play/pause, and next track). When you click the music playback Now Bar on the lock screen, it shows additional information along with a bigger album art in the middle of the screen and a media output switcher. You can see that in our images below. When multiple ongoing videos are present, the Now Bar widgets for each activity are stacked on top of each other, and you can cycle between them by flicking those widgets up or down. There is even a Now Bar that appears on the lock screen when you connect your phone to a charger. It displays the charging speed, the remaining time for a full charge, and the current charge level. The Now Bar for charging also acts as a progress bar, as the color filled up in the pill-shaped element corresponds to the current battery charge level. The Now Bar currently only works with some stock Samsung apps and system services, but we hope Samsung will support third-party apps with Android 16 and One UI 8.0. A that Google is internally working on an iOS-like Live Activities feature for Android 16, which could be integrated into the Now Bar for One UI.DOHA, Qatar , Dec. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 25, 2024 , the First JETOUR Fan's Festival and the Launch of T2 i-DM was held in Qatar , themed "Think Future". During the event, JETOUR launched its user brand "Traveler" in the Middle East and its first hybrid model, JETOUR T2 i-DM. The launch event highlights JETOUR's commitment to exploring sustainable travel modes and ambition to become the "The World's Leading Brand in Hybrid Off-road Vehicles" under the "Travel+" strategy. JETOUR T2 i-DM not only inherits the strengths of T2 series, but also achieves high energy efficiency, high performance, high safety, and high intelligence with its advanced hybrid technology, i-DM. With a maximum combined power of 280kW and torque of 610N•m, T2 i-DM boasts a NEDC pure electric range of 139km and an overall range exceeding 1,000km at just 0.8L/100km, addressing range anxiety and promoting green travel. Mr. Dai Lihong, executive vice president of JETOUR Auto, emphasized technology's role in producing world-class products. The launch also introduced "Traveler", enriching user experience through diverse products and superior performance. This year, JETOUR has ranked third in sales across the Qatari auto market. The Fan's Festival invited user representatives from across the Middle East to witness the unveiling of "Traveler", experiencing "Travel+" culture through city tours and co-creation workshops. JETOUR prioritizes users, listening to their needs and co-creating products, brand, and lifestyle. Through "Traveler," JETOUR aims to provide richer travel experiences and benefits globally, leveraging the platform to spread the "Travel+" culture worldwide. Mr. Alex Tan , Vice President of JETOUR International, said, "Serving 'JETOUR users' and being 'a user-oriented JETOUR' are JETOUR's development philosophy. JETOUR will continue to build a travel community centered around users, cars, and lifestyles, sharing the joy of traveling together with users." JETOUR also partnered with Diamond League to promote athletics in Qatar and the Middle East , embodying JETOUR Speed and the brand's image of breakthroughs and innovations. With T2 selling over 150,000 units globally, T2 i-DM will continue its success to meet customers' needs and reshape the hybrid SUV market. The launch of T2 i-DM marks JETOUR's new journey towards "the World's Leading Brand in Hybrid Off-road Vehicles." JETOUR plans to introduce more hybrid and off-road models, providing customers with eco-friendly and diversified travel choices. With its innovative spirit and user-oriented philosophy, JETOUR will lead the global automotive industry towards a more sustainable and smarter future. View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-launch-of-jetour-t2-i-dm-reshaping-the-hybrid-suv-market-302339886.html SOURCE JETOUR AUTOGeo Fact Check looks into claims of PTI supporters deaths during Islamabad protest

Diy13/iStock via Getty Images Listen here or on the go via Apple Podcasts or Spotify CannaVestments and Jerry Derevyanny return for an in-depth episode. Dissecting doom and gloom Q3 earnings for the cannabis industry (0:50). Green Thumb's consistently outstanding performance (4:25). Is it too early or too late to invest in cannabis? (11:15) Florida not legalizing - how much does it matter? (17:30) Agrify's interesting moves (35:40). Hemp, beverages and what may be worthy of investors' attention (40:00). Glass House discussion (47:40). Shorting Curaleaf? (53:55) Transcript Rena Sherbill: Jerry Derevyanny and CannaVestments , always a pleasure to talk to you both individually, even more of a pleasure to talk to you both at the same time. So thank you each for making the time and coming on the show. One of the reasons we decided to talk now is waiting till Q3 was over and the earnings reports have come in. I guess that's as good a place to start as any, and CannaVestments, you do such specific and detailed writing on Q3 earnings, I think it's great to start with you in this part of the conversation. Let's start with takeaways or trend takeaways that you saw broadly speaking in this earnings season? Nick Gastevich: Not to just to start the conversation with doom and gloom, but I think these Q3 earnings kind of showed a good amount of concern more than I've had in a while personally across, I would say, the sector as a whole. Q3, in a given year, is typically one of the stronger seasons, like you get the benefit of summer weather. Obviously, markets like Florida and Arizona have the opposite, where it's too hot and many people leave. But overall, Q3 tends to be one of the stronger quarters, and not universally every company, but I would say overall trends were that growth has stagnated for a lot of names, margin profiles shrank, cash flow was diminished, and that was with Ohio coming online for a number of operators. So I think there's a lot of read through as to what's happening in specific markets, kind of behind that weakness. And generally, I think there is some concern that ongoing price compression, which perhaps stalled for a quarter or two, has reaccelerated recently. And that was apparent in some of these recent numbers. RS : Jerry, happy for you to jump in, share your thoughts broadly speaking. Jerry Derevyanny: Broadly speaking, very similar, probably a little bit more doom and gloom than Nick. I think that what we're seeing is kind of the logical result of what everyone kind of in the back of their minds knows is an issue and knows is going to happen. But then we all get lulled into pretending that it's not happening, which is that some markets have continued to experience higher prices for longer because they're more oligopoly pricing, there's less supply. And as these markets start to show price degradation, these companies are now big enough that the new market that is coming online, like Ohio, is not enough to hide the general trend in the other states. For many of these companies, it just doesn't make that much of a difference whatsoever. And continued weakness, or I shouldn't even say continued weakness. I mean, these companies, many of them were overearning significantly by being early in markets, which is great. And now as these things are normalizing, I think we need to start drawing trend lines of, okay, what does this actually look like in a couple of years for the existing markets. And then let's kind of count the new markets a little bit differently. But yeah, I think there's going to be – it's an indication of problems to come for sure. For many of them. For some of them, sorry to interrupt, for some of them, or at least one of them in particular, which I have said that I own it in my PA, we don't own it in the fund – too big for the fund, but GTI ( OTCQX:GTBIF ) has continued to be a standout performer. Enough so that I think you're probably safe starting to draw some broad conclusions about the operating quality of GTI being a little bit better than the operating quality of many of the other Tier 1 and Tier 2 MSOs. RS : Jerry, I'll start with you. What would you attribute that to in terms of their higher level? JD : I think they've just been more disciplined than everyone else. And I think as they have grown, they've really not taken their eye off of the ball in terms of what really drives sales and value in these early markets and not taking enormously outsized bets that are kind of like bet the company bets. And even when they have taken outsized bets, it hasn't hurt them nearly as much as it's hurt others. So, for example, Virginia, they were early on, like you probably couldn't really anticipate what happened in Virginia and the slowdown that they had there. But they can tolerate that because they have plenty of other good businesses, mostly because their business, I think in Illinois, is very, very good, although likely starting to show some signs of price compression, as is inevitable. New York , I think, had a much slower start than they wanted. But I think a lot of it, my sense, and I don't talk to the management team over there at all, but my sense is that Ben Kovler is really good on capital allocation. He practices what he preaches and he has kind of a very good understanding, intuitive sense of which markets you want to go heavy into and which markets you don't and which markets you kind of wait on, which I think speaks to why he waited a little bit while they were a little bit gun shy in Florida, which turned out to be probably pretty good decision. And in Minnesota, they've deployed a significant amount of capital for what I think is going to be a great program. And I think Anthony over there, the CFO, I met him years ago and I met Ben years ago too, and they were both incredibly impressive. And I think Anthony, I feel like on the operations side enforces some really good discipline. They've grown quite a bit. They deployed a lot of CapEx in the last couple of years, but they have not seen the same kind of SG&A bloat that many other companies have seen while deploying smaller sums of money. I think that tells you a lot. I think you can start to look at the productivity of their retail assets is quite good. Some of that's buoyed by price, certainly, but they've been able to hold serve much better than a lot of other companies, I think. RS : Nick, care to weigh in on GTI or winners of this earning season, even though it's not a very celebratory time? NG : I would echo what Jerry says. And I thought this Q3, there's a lot of like relative winners where I think even GTI's report, while I think was strong, did have areas of concern, like margin profile dropped a bit. Their operational cashflow conversion from EBITDA is down a little bit this year compared to last year, still far ahead of everyone else, but it came in a little bit, at least, in the numbers I've looked at. So I think some of the overall performance you're also weighing against other operators. When I look at kind of the Tier 2 subset, like the TerrAscends ( OTCQX:TSNDF ) and Ascend ( OTCQX:AAWH ) and Cannabist ( OTCQX:CBSTF ) and Ayr ( OTCQX:AYRWF ), like a lot of these are just like absolute disasters when you look kind of long-term growth trends, especially comparing back to even 2021. We've had three years of essentially no growth for a lot of these companies, And that's with New Jersey and Maryland and Ohio and several key markets turning over, which just shows the struggle that they've had elsewhere in the portfolio to not offset that. So I do think GTI exhibited a good quarter, but an especially relatively strong quarter. I would put Trulieve ( OTCQX:TCNNF ) in that bucket to some extent. The growth – the top line dropped by quite a bit, but their margin profile held up quite well. I think Cresco ( OTCQX:CRLBF ) deserves some credit in the same regard. Margin profile stayed strong even though they've had a serious growth issue as well. I think they’re – each of the last three years, they've essentially seen their top line decline at this point. So I do give credit to the companies that have been at least able to optimize their operations and reduce SG&A and at least hold the margin profile to the point where they're generating cash. But a lot of these Tier 2s and a company like a Curaleaf ( OTCPK:CURLF ) or we could look at Verano ( OTCQX:VRNOF ) as a company that had stellar margins historically, and that's just been on a continuous downward slope for some time. And I think that, that goes back to what Jerry said with these new markets coming online as these companies have gotten bigger aren't seeing nearly enough benefit from those markets to offset the problems that we're seeing. I think that you could look at some key markets like New Jersey is a standout market for so many early on, like for Curaleaf and for TerrAscend and for Verano, where they took such outsized both revenue share and margin profile that every quarter we're adding new stores and new cultivators in the market and that's just on a cascade downward that these quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year comparisons end up looking really rough. So now it's a question of a lot of companies over the past couple of years took on a lot of leverage and balance sheets are in rough shape. And we're at a point where cash flow for the grand majority of them is flat or negative if you take into account the fact that essentially no one is paying 280E taxes anymore. There's just a lot of red flags in my opinion as to like where does the turnaround come from when you look at the next, say, 12 to 18 months with Florida not turning like we're not going to have any real new markets as growth potential like Minnesota will be one, but that'll be unique to just Vireo ( OTCQX:VREOF ) and GTI at least initially. And then for the most part, I think we'll see continued price compression in core markets. And it really brings into question, what does the next year look like from an operational standpoint for these companies? RS : I think that's what I'm wondering as well and how you each would articulate – do articulate with investors in the cannabis sector that are already invested in the sector and those outside of it that wonder about, I mean timelines are something we've discussed throughout this podcast. It's been discussed many times. It seems like four or five years ago, everybody was wondering if we're too late. And now it's, are we too early? Is there a point in getting into the industry now? It's everywhere you turn, there's bad news, but is it worth getting in now for the good news to come? Or how are you both thinking about that? Jerry, I'll start with you. JD : Well, for some of these companies, I think as a sector, we need to get away from thinking about good news for the sector, not to push back on you too hard, Rena. RS : No, push back. JD : I think it's really important to start looking at this as a company specific set of stories, not rather than like, oh, the rising tide is going to be a buoy for everybody. There are huge differences in what is coming for these companies. And good news for Schedule III or de-scheduling or uplisting, whatever anybody talks about, like as if half of these companies project forward their financial results and see where they're going to be trading about like meme stock, like if they're even going to qualify for a NASDAQ listing with some of their balance sheets. I think we need to get away from that kind of stuff and just look at actual individual companies. My best advice to someone, there's almost two ways to play it. I don't think you'd be kind of half in, half out. You're either looking at these companies going incredibly in depth and trying to find value like we do at the fund with some of the smaller companies trying to really kind of find some of the underappreciated gems outside of the even Tier 2s, or I think you buy GTI and you go away for 10 years and you go, all right, I think, yeah, there's certainly a little bit of pressure in the business. There's a decent amount of actual profitable growth most likely to come, and you've got a bunch of optionality and you're paying whatever multiple it is that you're paying of EBIT or whatever you want to use. And you just don't look at it for 10 years and kind of know that management is aligned with you. NG: I think that's a good approach as well. Anytime you have turmoil in these markets and I think we've already seen kind of the initial signs of what will look like market consolidation. I think it's happening kind of in specific areas at first. Certainly if you look at California, the number of companies going under has certainly accelerated in the past year and I certainly think that will continue. So to Jerry's point, if you can identify the companies that are doing well within a tough market, arguably in the long run, those are the companies that will eventually take market share and benefit from others falling under. I think if you're fresh money coming into this market, you certainly could look at where valuations are and seeing stocks drop across the board, there are some interesting value plays. But I think we've been talking about this for a while, the fact that there’s very little new money in this industry, so you're largely working with people who have just been burned over and over again. I would really take a deep dive into the companies you're holding and see if a company only was doing well based on elevated prices, what is the long-term viability of that company? And even if it's trading at 3x EBITDA today, is that really worth anything, if in the long run, prices are going to come down and that EBITDA is only going to shrink? So I think those are, like Jerry said, company-by-company evaluations you have to do. And then anything that comes from the legislative side is kind of just icing on the cake for those names that ideally can survive under any situation. But yeah, I'd be very cautious around trying to find value in struggling names that are, at least in my opinion, seem to just be heading in one direction. JD : So Nick, so it looks like 280E is icing on the cake, but unfortunately, most of the companies have already eaten the icing out of the can and it never got to the cake, right? Because all that cash is showing up as UTPs and we're pretending – we’re doing this game of pretend that they're never going to do it all with the exception of GTI. And I think Verano is in a slightly different position as they might be on a payment plan or something. I'm not even sure they could run the same strategy. But yeah, I think the other thing that complicates this even more is there are so many states that underlie the big companies and there are so many cross currents that when you see moves that look good, like margin improvement at Trulieve, for example, which is there, like it's true, and you give them all the credit in the world, but then you step back and go, wait a second, they built a new facility. How much money did they invest for a 10-point bump in or whatever it was in gross profit? And it didn't just come kind of organically where they used what they had, like they put in more money to try to lower their cost basis. Matter of fact, I think we should probably talk about Florida. I think it's probably, as I've been looking at the biggest danger zone right now that we have for these companies. And I think it's turned from, I thought it was going to pass to like a relatively perilous situation, I would say, for the equities, that the companies will most likely continue and most of them will be fine, or at least some of them will be fine, the bigger ones. It's a question of well, how much profits are equity or stockholders going to see? And I think that's a much more touchy question now on some of these companies. RS : Get into it, Jerry, talk about Florida . I mean, there's also, I feel like if you would care to weigh in on perhaps the disconnect between the public markets in Florida and what the smaller growers, companies, non-public companies, what the mom and pops, what they would prefer happen in Florida who are more excited that it didn't pass this time around. JD : I think the only people that are excited it didn't pass are the hemp people because they get to continue to kind of basically do this arbitrage where they're one small hop away from black market dealing to convenience stores versus having a real cannabis company that has all the overhead of having to comply with some pretty onerous rules in the medical system. I think they're the ones that are really happy. Some of the smaller... RS : The home grow contingency. JD : Yeah, that's, I mean, that, I was amazed that that worked. But again, in this political environment, I shouldn't be amazed. That was such a clearly bad faith argument, because if you take a step back and go, okay, the thing doesn't have home grow. Do you really think these people like Ron DeSantis’ press secretary who's telling you it doesn't have home grow. Do you really think she's a home grow fan? Like if this doesn't pass, you think she's going to run a home grow bill? Like it's total bad faith, right? It was just a setup for bad faith. Plus, the whole home grow thing is absurd, frankly, because to stand in the way of a bunch of 99.9% of people want to go to a store and buy it. They don't want to home-brew their stuff. To stand in the way of the 99.9% being able to kind of do it and then cleaning up the home grow issue later, which has been done in multiple states, on the home grow issue is just to – it's just ridiculously obtuse, I think, to deny like the vast majority of people adult use cannabis because of this tiny contingent that wants home grow here and now. I think it's just a total canard. Or maybe some of the smaller operators, they'll get through it. It's okay. I mean, I'm sure Brady and the team at Sunburn weren't happy about it, but they seem to be taking share and their flower quality is speaking for itself. A couple of the smaller guys, like they are basically, from what I understand, selling out because they have higher quality. They go for a higher price point than some of the major operators. The perfect storm that you have right now is that a bunch of companies leveled up into more production space, right? So they are now going to be able to, pricing in Florida already isn't all that like super inflated. There's a lot of sales. It's not that much more than the mature market. The difference is that generally the product quality that you get at that price point is a little bit worse. So now I would anticipate that extractive products start to come down in price maybe a little bit faster than they were before because of the increased flower capacity that they have. You even saw kind of Boris refer to it in his earnings call where he said, well, something along the lines of, I hope Florida remains, as long as everyone remains rational, then we think pricing is going to be okay. Basically be wink-wink, nudge-nudge, Trulieve and Verano, please don't drop your prices, even though you guys have added capacity and need to move more product. There probably will be a restart in growth of the medical population, but they're already one of the most penetrated medical generally speaking, with the exception of Oklahoma, like 3.5% of the population or more was already a medical patient. There's how much more growth you've got. And with more capacity coming online, this is kind of a perfect storm for significant price and margin degradation and a real knife fight in Florida. And the companies that are most exposed to Florida, right, Trulieve, Curaleaf, let's see, Verano's 50% Florida, Trulieve 70% Florida, Cresco's a third Florida, Curaleaf is probably about 35%, 40% Florida in terms of their retail exposure. Almost every single one of the companies that I've said has a 2025, 2026 maturity. I think all of them do. And if you project forward what we're seeing in Q3 with the price compression and everything, as the cashflow gets worse, especially on a tax adjusted basis, right, and as pricing continues to degrade in Florida, and you're running up against a maturity wall where you got $323 million that needs to be refinanced by Verano in 2026, Trulieve $475 million, that's not even counting the 80, they got to do and they got to pay or refinance in 2025. Trulieve’s got over $370 million due in 2026. And if you just project out with using reasonable assumptions, some of these things continuing to work as they've been working and just logical, just use your logic brain and go, okay, there's a lot more capacity, there's not as many patients, like they're going to need to move. That's a price competition waiting to happen. It doesn't take much to go, man, that refinancing might be a lot more expensive than I thought it was. Even with 280E going away and all this stuff, like we mentioned before, it doesn't actually change cash flows all that much for all these companies except for GTI and the debt providers are pretty savvy. And so they'll be able to capture kind of whatever profit is there, they stand to capture a significant portion of it. So for me, I've been thinking about this for the last couple of days, like the Florida exposure, I think is really an issue. And then it also brings up the question of how much is Trulieve going to have to pay to try to get this thing on the ballot again or try to pass adult use over the next couple of years? That's even more cash that's got to go out the door, right? So anyway, Nick, I don't know, I talked for a while, so I don't know if you disagree with any of that. NG : No, I think that's spot on. And yeah, I mean, I think everyone's base case assumption should be that there's no adult use on the horizon until 2028 at the earliest. And I got to imagine given the 60% threshold and seeing what that reality looks like, it's going to be an uphill battle for any comfortable – any company to get comfortable with paying that. And yeah, no, to your point, you had Ayr get the new facility from ( IIPR ) to build an indoor facility there, and Verano bought, I think, spent $35 million to $40 million on a new indoor grow in Florida. Trulieve had obviously expanded their facility, and I'm sure a number of the private players underwent similar things. And of course, all of them are saying that they were staggering the expansions and this will be beneficial for the medical market. But to your point, patient count is still growing and it's reaccelerated post-ballot measure. Unit growth is actually still fairly strong, but because price is coming down, the market itself is reaching a point where it's largely flat year-over-year marginally up, but the growth in store count is up way more over the same period. So your unit economics on any individual store is just headed in the wrong direction. And I think Florida, because it is vertical and because you can get so much scale, it has historically been a very strong market margin-wise. But the overall problem is even if Florida goes from a great market to a good market for some or a good market to an average market for others, like you no longer have that asset buoying the rest of your markets, like all these companies still have legacy operations in like Massachusetts, which obviously has just cratered on pricing and their numbers there have come down. So I think Florida will still be a relatively strong market because of the structure. It's still limited license. It's fully vertical. Like there are inherent benefits there, but it's only going to go in one direction. And that's tough for companies that have clearly put in a lot of capital into the market. And when you have no vision to an adult use flip now for perhaps four years or more, like I'm certainly not hopeful in the Florida legislature who just had a giant war with Trulieve to squish this, that they're going to be amendable to legislating what an adult use market would look like. I just don't see any scenario for that. So I think that's the reality of what this market looks like over the coming years. RS : In terms of the companies that took such a heavy bet on Florida, and I mean, it seemed everywhere you turned, everyone thought that this was going to pass speaking from people within the cannabis industry. What are your thoughts about the companies that made these bets? Is this the price of doing business and it's sometimes a coin flip and you sometimes make the wrong bet? To the point about Ben Kovler having such good intuition for the states to get into and not to get into. What are your thoughts there? NG : Yeah, I mean, I was right there with most people. Like we saw the polling, it was very consistent. I think the thing that wasn't captured was turnout. I actually think polling was probably correct. I think if you polled everyone evenly across the board, I think polling support for the ballot was actually probably in the low to mid-60s. But the thing it didn't factor in and it's kind of happened across the country during the election is that democratic turnout who tend to vote for cannabis at 80%, 90% was just low. So you just didn't have that support coming from that side and end up coming in short of the 60% needed. I definitely think that like companies – I was surprised that we did not see this in Q3 calls. I think analysts in the sector are extremely soft during all these calls, like they don't ask hard questions. They don't ask the questions that these companies should be addressing. Because like when you look at Florida, and I think this happens in a number of markets, there's this huge desire to be big on day one. And I think this being a perfect example of like when the ballot wasn't a guarantee, the most risk you would face by holding off on capital expenditures until it was solidified was maybe you miss out on three to six months of that initial boom in the market. And you could still come online over time. Maybe you're a little late to the game, but you still have a presence when the time comes. So I definitely think that there should be questions given to these companies that spent so heavily ahead of a ballot that was looking good, but was never guaranteed by any means. And that's unfortunately something we've seen in quite a few markets, like and sometimes like if you look at a New Jersey, like TerrAscend, Verano and Curaleaf had just massive market share. They had stores early on that were doing $40 million, $50 million run rates. And that's great. If you can take advantage of those times, like it's good to have, but I think you should constantly be communicating to shareholders that, hey, this is not going to last forever and we need to be prepared for that. And just to size your grows accordingly that you're not going to have 25% market share in a state long-term and you should be sized accordingly. RS : Can you think of any company that's done that, to share that with shareholders or kind of been public facing about, listen, this growth isn't forever? Do you think that's impossible to do as like C-suite in a publicly-traded company? Or have you seen that happen? NG : I mean, from my perspective, we're bringing up GTI again, I think they're a good example of a company who always has a presence on day one, but generally hasn't been the biggest, New Jersey was a great example. They were there on day one, took a benefit, but didn't have the leading market share initially and then they scaled up over time as new retail doors came. I think there's other companies, Jerry knows a lot, a big fan of Grown Rogue ( OTCPK:GRUSF ) obviously, their entire business is built on a specific size grow that will do well in any market. It's in that craft space, I would say, maybe slightly larger than craft. So that was like inherent in their DNA from the beginning. JD : I was going to echo what Nick said. I mean, I think Grown Rogue has talked about it. I mean, we've certainly talked about it. When we've talked about Grown Rogue, we use excess EBITDA as when prices are high, you're going to earn more. There's a lot of great things about that, but you shouldn’t be paying a lot – a big multiple for what we call excess EBITDA, right? But all these companies kind of wink-wink, nudge-nudge, or at least most of these companies, I think GTI is a little bit better. I think there's still a little bit of a black box when it comes to that. But yeah, I think frankly, GTI knows that their performance is good enough. They don't have to do it. I think, to shout out to my partner, Josh Rosen, who I think did talk about it as the CEO, when he was CEO of Vireo. I think he talked about this exact kind of laying the groundwork for investors to understand the natural rhythm of the business and that to understand that there's going to be overearning and then there's still going to be a potential very good long-term win, but you should understand that the Curaleaf Bellmawr store that's 80 million run rate or whatever Boris said it was. And now it's, well, look, there's 20 stores or 12 stores or whatever open within 20-minute drive, like, yeah, that's what happens, like why is this a surprise? Like, why is this being used as a justification for substandard financial performance. This was very obvious from the beginning that there would be more stores in Jersey. I think to talk about Kovler, not to like puff him up too much. But I think my sense was that Kovler understood that Jersey is a future Massachusetts or close because there wasn't that much capital to build it out. Initially, there was a real trove of capital and Massachusetts has no license limitations really. It's like, it's not really a – it's not limited license market. It's just difficult, there's this local patchwork. And I think that not going big in Jersey in the long-term is going to be probably considered a pretty good decision versus the companies that did go big in Jersey over the long-term, that's going to be more of an albatross, like more of a noose around the neck. I think there are companies like TerrAscend, I think nobody asked them the question, but I think they'd have a hard time explaining why exactly things are so bad when the pricing goes from nosebleed to still very good in New Jersey. RS : To the point about the black box-ness, lack of transparency on Green Thumb’s part, something also we have talked many, many times about. Do you feel like that just is a matter of they don't have to, so they're not going to? Is there a reality or a likely reality in the future where investors kind of are privy to what's in the black box and are horrified by that? Or do you feel like when they have to answer for things and delineate certain transparencies, they will be? JD : Real quick, I think that when the pressure comes, like it does take more, if you don't have to do it, then why do it unless it's an advantage to you? I think GTI actually disclosed a little bit more than I remembered they did when I looked at their 10-K, for their annuals, they actually disclosed some – a little bit more granular information. You can start to put together some stuff about them and kind of build the business a little bit easier, but they're certainly not Verano. I think Verano deserves some kudos. The unfortunate part is that Verano’s disclosure is now easy to use against them because you look at it and go, man, the business is getting worse in every state you're in. Wow, maybe that's not as good as I thought it was. But I think if GTI were ever to uplist to NASDAQ through, say, Agrify ( AGFY ), just throwing that out there just randomly. I would not be surprised if they ended up within a year or so starting to have some more robust disclosures. And they actually do disclose one thing that most other people don't, which is same-store sales. And they disclose what the comp same-store is, which is, I believe it's a store that was open for a year at the time of the previous quarter. So they do give you a little bit of like you can start to put together what the business is doing a little bit more granularly than I probably gave them credit for before. RS : Are you being coy about that Agrify you mentioned? JD : Well, I'm sure I had zero doubt that we're going to get into it. So I'm being a little bit coy, but I'm interested in what, let's put a pin in it because I'm interested in what Nick thinks about the disclosure questions. NG : Yeah. No, I think you nailed it. I think it'd be greatly appreciated, but given their performance, it's something that they haven't felt the need to do. And I think as long as that stays solid, I don't expect it anytime soon. I think they've always held it under the guise of not wanting to give anything away to competition. And I think that's enough of an explanation when you're performing well. So yeah, I think to Jerry's point, if they ever uplist, I think as institutional investors would potentially take a larger look at is perhaps something that they wouldn't push on. I also think like if you ever had struggles, I also think there'd be more pressure on companies to start explaining the reason behind those struggles. So given those two things don't seem to be imminent, I wouldn't expect to change it anytime soon, even though it would be interesting from an investor perspective for sure. RS : Jerry, ping-pong. JD : We're back to Agrify? RS : We're back. JD : Okay. It's an interesting move. It's a really interesting move. So the beverage thing came very quickly on the heels of the original deal. A number of years ago, we wrote effectively a short report on Agrify, and that company ended up using its stock to buy a couple of legitimate extraction companies and a couple of other companies like Precision that actually do have real tech. These aren't standout, incredibly profitable businesses. They're very kind of bread and butter. You build an extraction machine, you sell it type businesses. Agrify’s other part of their business that they kind of were selling their vertical farming units and their SaaS offerings. All that stuff was pardon my French, BS. And I'm comfortable calling it a scam. And I'm surprised that the former CEO Raymond Chang has not been investigated and/or arrested by the SEC. But that presents the opportunity for GTI. I think it provides like it's a great roll up vehicle and a vehicle to with hemp. It's a decent size bet for them, but they got $18 million into it to buy the equity. And they have with the warrants that they bought, they control like 43% or whatever it is, basic shareholdings, but they can basically instantly become 80-plus percent owners. They probably bought some of that extraction technology that if it all goes to pot, they still get to keep a couple of extraction machines. But the hemp beverage thing, assuming it continues to survive past the Farm Bill, I think it provides a great vehicle for them to kind of really dive into that space in a way that other companies can't, right? No other companies have a NASDAQ listing because Curaleaf is doing it under the auspices of their TSX listing with their wonky structure. You look at that and go, wow, okay, I can kind of get in bed with GTI on the hemp beverage side, which I think most sellers would prefer than Curaleaf paper. And so that, I think it's just a ton of optionality and it didn't cost them very much. And because they're so good and because they're under-levered, they have the flexibility to make bets like this, to bet $18 million-plus the $10 million convert plus the other $10 million tranche. That's not a big swing for them, and they're pretty well covered. The other thing that I think is really interesting that I saw Ben mention in the call is he kind of mentioned Europe, which Boris has talked about ad nauseam. And what I think is really interesting is that Europe is early. As we've discussed, GTI doesn't usually go all in early on this kind of stuff. They're a little bit more deliberative. And now you have a vehicle, right, that's kind of connected to what I would consider a higher-quality company than Curaleaf on – traded on NASDAQ that is now a potential vehicle to raise capital and to potentially use its stock accretively on European assets and potentially kind of applying GTI's discipline to Europe. And again, if I'm a seller in Germany or wherever in Europe, looking at, okay, Curaleaf is buying up all this stuff. I can get Curaleaf paper. They're not really giving much cash out anymore for bigger acquisitions, they can't afford it. Or I can get Agrify stock and look at how it's been performing and it's, oh, by the way, it's kind of, if they ever do allow it, then the writing's on the wall, it seems that it's going to be kind of a vehicle where GTI merges into it. That would be a much more preferred buyer for my asset in Europe to me than Curaleaf. Like Curaleaf would have to pay me more than GTI, if that makes sense. And I think, I don't know what's going to happen, but again, that's just optionality that comes right back to GTI shareholders. RS : Nick, if you have anything to say about that slash, an addendum to that would also be, do you have any company to add to the GTI conversation in terms of worthy of bulls' attention? NG : I think Jerry addressed the Agrify opportunity well. And I do think it speaks to the larger hemp-derived discussion, which obviously can be a long one. And I think there's a bit of opaqueness around the exact size of the market out there, but there seems to be consensus that no doubt this is a fastly growing business, a lot of it not exactly up to high standards, but has grown into quite a sizable market very quickly. And we've invested in a few operators like in the beverage space. We've been invested in Cann for a while, and Wonder, which are similar, were originally California beverage companies in the traditional THC space and then shifted to hemp-derived. And so we've been following the market for a little while now. And I do think if the Farm Bill, maybe it gets extended for initial year or if there's any sort of clarity given in the near-term about what a new Farm Bill looks like, it at least seems like this could be an opportunity for a number of companies. So then you start to question like what is the best way to play it? And to Jerry's point, this would be the first – Agrify would be kind of like the first, if it continues to be like a roll-up strategy of hemp-derived brands and then caveat the potential European opportunity as well, you get that direct NASDAQ listing with optionality with the GTI connection, and then not the baggage of kind of like the legacy U.S. cannabis business that Curaleaf has, or even looking at –Tilray ( TLRY ) is obviously pivoted into hemp-derived as well and launched beverages into the U.S. recently, but they have the baggage of being a Canadian LP that has struggled to have a return or profit. So I do think there is an interesting play here, and it'll be interesting to see if other people or companies follow suit as a way to play hemp-derived. I think a lot, many will wait to see that Farm Bill get finalized, or at least the current one get extended. So that you at least have some runway to know that your CapEx towards whatever avenue you choose won't be legislated away in the near-term. But certainly an interesting area to look at given struggles in the traditional U.S. market. RS : And any companies to add to that conversation? Any other companies you want to discuss or things to pay attention to for specific players? Nick? NG : I mean, right now on the hemp-derived side, my sense is that the majority of the largest operators are private. So Cann, certainly one of our investments is doing quite well. And I've heard of other hemp-derived operators that are pretty well scaled. I think it's hard right now to gauge who's doing so in a well-tested, consistent way that will be like durable long-term. So it's a bit tough now to say what's a good option to invest in like if you're just looking for public companies. So a bit of a TBD there. Not sure if you know of any others, Jerry, on the public side. JD : Yeah, on the public side, most of the stuff remains private. Again, like GTI has an investment in Cann that I think has been public. And word on the street is that they've invested in others unlike many of the other cannabis companies that have kind of hidden bombs on their balance sheet, like occasionally with GTA, you get like a little hidden extra bonus, like the Cansortium ( OTCQB:CNTMF ) debt that they hold. And I think they have a couple of investments in some hemp companies. I just don't – hemp is a really tough one for me. My sense is that it probably is at the margin taking some of the really price-sensitive, price per milligram of THC customers. So some of the kind of the lower lifetime value customers, but that is probably seeing some of that in some of the results from Washington and some of the more mature states a little bit. I think you're seeing a lot of hemp sales in places that don't have adult use systems. And with the market generally, I think it's really difficult to underwrite who's going to be a winner in that market, or that it's going to be very fractured and kind of where the economic value is going to accrue. Is it going to be the distributor? Is it going to be the liquor stores that are getting it? Is it going to become kind of like alcohol where there's more established brands or is it going to be more fractured kind of forever? I think a lot of that particular use in liquor stores and stuff like that is actually great because it's alcohol being subbed out instead for THC, which I think is good for society, but also it doesn't really affect the adult use sales nearly that much. So I think it's interesting. I think a lot of companies are really going deep on direct-to-consumer. And I think that evidence suggests that direct-to-consumers is part of a great strategy for sure. But there's a lot of ways to lose in direct-to-consumer. It's not the panacea that everybody thinks it is. A lot of these kinds of products for – you can buy alcohol online, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of alcohol is still bought liquor stores and convenience stores, stuff like that. These are the types of products people like to look at and shop for, and I think that's going to continue. But yeah, on the public stuff, I don't know, and the Agrify valuation has gotten a little bit meme stocky, so I'm not sure how I feel about recommending Agrify itself as an investment. I think one thing probably for investors to look at, what's been interesting for me is to look at – we look at retail sales a lot, I think just naturally, because the retail footprints here are pretty big. It's very easy kind of to see the retail trends and pricing correction and stuff like that. What's been really interesting to see, and I think is underappreciated, is what's going on in the wholesale side of some of these companies' businesses and how much of a difference that makes. And some of these companies are starting to show significant declines year-over-year in wholesale revenue. And because of all the operating leverage that's in that side of the business, I think that actually has a disproportionately bad effect on them. Whereas the companies that are starting to show better product market fit, I think that's what it's showing, that they're getting a little deeper in their current markets, new markets. I think that's long-term. As you get pricing compression in retail, one of the ways you can balance that out is by having good products at wholesale that you don't really care about percentage margins as an investor that much. What you really care about are what's the cash dropping to the bottom line? And each incremental product you get out of many of these facilities, you sell it at many of these facilities is pretty profitable, right, after you make back your fixed costs and your lease and a lot of that stuff. So I think that that's something that people should watch as an indicator of quality in these companies. And the other thing I think people should watch is, I think SG&A as percentage of revenue, SG&A is kind of – for assets is pretty – is something company they should watch too because I think that is starting to show a lot of differences in quality between companies too. RS : Any company that you would name aside from Grown Rogue to this conversation? NG : I was going to say like they're not necessarily my favorite company. I think the valuation at this point is a little high, but I think Glass House ( OTC:GLASF ) in this most recent quarter, again, exemplified their low-cost advantage. I think there's structural issues in California that again emerged, pricing there. I think a lot of people thought we're looking at total acreage and all these licenses dropping out and we're assuming we'd see an appreciation in price and then the exact opposite happened because I think it was a pretty good growing season for the West Coast in general. And there's a lot of bleed through from Oregon and Washington and California between those states and pricing in the illicit market obviously impacts pricing in the legal market. So I think pricing ended up being a challenge for them in the quarter. But they're certainly an example of a company that is doing fairly well in a tough market and their cost advantage seems to be pretty durable. I think there's going to be limitations on what their ability to grow long-term is, like as long as interstate trade remains limited, which is why I think they're pivoting towards THCa hemp flower as a possible option. But I do think that's a company that like has exhibited the ability to succeed in a tough market. It's obviously different business model than Grown Rogue, but ultimately, and along with GTI, it's all about being a quality producer at – or a low-cost producer at your given quality segment and doing so in an effective way. And I think they at least have shown that. I don't know if I love the valuation at these prices, but I do think there is a durability to the profit profile. JD : Glass House is really interesting to me. That's one, Aaron Edelheit is a good friend. And that's one we've debated for years. I guess you could well say that I've been wrong on it because I think it's been a three-bagger since the time that I thought it was too expensive. It's interesting. I think they've been really impressive. What struck me – what you mentioned is this, they have mentioned, I think I went back through a bunch of their earnings calls and I think for two years straight, they were talking about how licenses were leaving, all this canopy is leaving, pricing has gotten better and then suddenly pricing – as all this canopy is purportedly leaving, you see – start to see pricing degrade. I think part of that is very natural. They have way more product to move, right? They had like double the amount of product to move in Q3 than they did last Q3. And so you have that much product to move, even in a pretty big market. And I think it's probably an open secret that at least some of their stuff is through burner distros going out of state. So it's not even staying in California, or it's being sold in kind of the gray market, local ban, illegal medical shops in California. So you still saw pricing kind of trimmed down. And so it reminded me of Washington where I saw this storyline for a long time. What I think actually happens is the weaker players leave the market, which means the stronger players stay and usually the stronger players are adding production or are getting better with their yields. So the net effect of it is not what you think it's going to be because you end up getting just better and better competition. I think the other thing that strikes me about Glass House is that their cost per pound, right, $103 per pound, which is kind of exactly what they said their long-term target is and my hat's off to them. But if you look at it, like their cost per pound is 118 – for Q3 last year was $118 a pound. And so their cost per pound went down 13%, but the amount of canopy they have went up like 60%. And so what it tells me is that there's this really diminishing return to massive scale. And I'm not sure how much more they – if you think about it, you go, okay, well, they say they want to have whatever it is, 4 million, 5 million square feet. Well if the incremental return is so low for that square footage, does that really make sense because your competitor down the road can just put in a million square feet and basically match costs. Does that make sense? It's interesting for me to think about. And also I think it's undersold a little bit, the long-term threat to their business, I think is better outdoor than other greenhouses so much. I think outdoor is going to improve and high-quality outdoor, if you're talking about interstate commerce from Northern California, Southern Oregon, for example, I think that's going to definitely attack them from kind of the bottom end of the market and that stuff is a lot cheaper on a program basis. So... But also their cap table gives me a headache. I think that if I were an investor, like to me, the common looks too expensive, but the prefs, I think the people that are sitting in the prefs got a great deal and my hats off to them. NG : I think you make a good point on the competition from the outdoor side and I do think that was a big part of the story in Q3. Like it even seemed like, I didn't see, on Grown Rogue’s report, their margin profile in Oregon specifically was a bit down quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year and that's where they have their outdoor growth. So it seemed like there was a good outdoor season pretty much on the entire West Coast and that kind of brought our pricing down across the board. JD : I think their outdoor business, because they just reported on calendar. They probably pulled their outdoor, but they probably haven't like dried and cured and sold their outdoor until October, November. I haven't chatted with Obie in a little bit, but I don't know if the outdoors is reflected in Q3 or that reflected. I think we might be seeing more of it in Q4. RS : Small points to make before we say goodbye this time? I enjoyed this lineup very much. JD : Nick, if you had to short one of the tier 1s, who'd you short? NG : I mean, at these prices, I think Curaleaf is still probably trading the most expensive of, I think last time I checked, I think GTI is trading about 6.5x EBITDA right now. Curaleaf is closer to 6x and then Verano and Trulieve are 3.5x, 4x. I've never understood the premium. So that would be the easy first name. I would put out there as a name that continues to trade too expensive and without justification in my mind. RS : Who would you short, Jerry? JD : Curaleaf is the easy one for me. I don't know where TerrAscend is at right now, but I always thought just on valuation basis, I thought that they just traded a little bit too rich and it got a premium. I think Jason Wild is a really smart guy. Like he's pretty active on Twitter. He seems to have the IR part of things down. To me, it strikes me that a lot of their growth and kind of their improvement and holding margin or whatever it is they're doing is because they're buying and not paying cheap prices for dispensaries and just on the cusp of legalization or right after legalization in Maryland and Ohio. One-time sales in a new environment like that is not a super cheap price that they paid, or at least that was estimated that they paid. And their debt financing is it's pretty expensive and maturity is not that far out. So that's one that's always been interesting, but I don't know what the current valuation is. I think just taking a step back, like let's look at kind of if you take their cashflow from operations in the first nine months of 2024 versus their reported EBITDA – adjusted EBITDA, like you got about $152 million out of GTI. And this is after you, let's take away the taxes. Let's pretend they paid their taxes because a lot of these companies are reporting cash flow from operations, which includes not paying your taxes, which I think is just baloney. So what you get is you got about like a 58% kind of conversion, I think 58%, 60% on GTI in terms of like how much of their cashflow is, how much of their adjusted EBITDA is converting cashflow. If you look at a company like Curaleaf, their true cashflow is like negative $69 million, $70 million versus reported adjusted EBITDA of $225 million in the same period. Trulieve put up about $100 million, which is about a third of what its adjusted EBITDA was. I actually believe I added back in their political spending for the year. So that's adjusted for the political spending that they did, which was obviously a real cash expense. You've got Verano, just kind of cashflow generation seems to have fallen off a cliff. It's about like half of – less than half of what it was last year. And I think a lot of that has to do with pricing and versus its - 15% of their adjusted EBITDA or something like that is being converted to cashflow. Cresco is an interesting case. I think Cresco is in a weird spot, Nick, this kind of esoteric accounting stuff, but they have this tax receivables thing, which I think is an agreement by which the sellers of an asset receive back certain, share certain future rebates and taxes. And I think they, because of their getting a 280E refund or asking for it, I think they actually technically would owe a lot of that back to the sellers of that asset in a tax receivables agreement. So if you adjust for that, like their cashflow doesn't look nearly as good either. And that's just, generally speaking, the Tier 2s are even worse. And so, yeah, doom and gloom here, but I seriously am thinking that the politics aside, you start to look at these things as, man, some of these things really start to look like fundamental shorts because of what I think is coming down the pipe. NG : I think that's well said and kind of goes back to kind of where we started the conversation and identifying companies over the long-term that will capitalize on the eventual destruction of a lot of these operators who are simply not efficient enough to survive in a normally priced market, like a long-term price market. And a lot of that is just influenced by the amount of leverage that companies have taken on over the last couple of years. I think it really speaks to the fact that you really need to look past press releases and look at operating statements because you can really just see if a company that has SG&A that exceeds gross profit, and then you add an interest expense, and then they're still reporting positive cash flow in their press release, you have to question why. It's usually because they're racking up some sort of liability on their balance sheet. And it's easy to think, hey, this company is cashflow positive, but in reality, they’re – all they're doing is adding debt on their balance sheet at the end of the day, that's at some point going to come due. So I think really for all investors, deep dive into these financial statements, particularly the cash flow statements, because there's a lot of gimmicks going on and press releases do not tell the full story. JD : I think the other thing investors really need to keep in mind, too, is that for a long time, you see it even now sometimes a little bit where you start to put together like this sum of the parts thing where you go, man, this company is trading for a market cap of whatever, $50 million, but they just sold their Virginia assets and Arizona assets for $40 million to Verano. It's Cannabist, right? And so therefore the rest of it must be, it's so undervalued. Well, what if the rest of it's worth negative? I think there's also such a lack of buyers. Whereas before companies had this kind of in their back pocket where they could divest of some assets and kind of right the ship. And that was a little bit of an escape hatch for them. That escape hatch doesn't really exist and it can't be counted on anymore because a lot of these companies have assets in all the plumb states. There’s – consolidation is really difficult in this industry. Some CEOs talk about consolidation. Like there's such an overlap of assets in most of these companies that it would be incredibly difficult to do it. And most of them don't have the balance sheet to do it whatsoever. So I think investors can get in real trouble looking at year old press releases or two-year old press releases of, oh, look, they sold a Florida license for $30 million or whatever it was. And now it's like, well, now that's worth $5 million. And I think people need to be really careful with that kind of stuff. NG : Yeah. I think Cannabist is a great example of a name that everyone's been calling cheap for years now and the price has only gone in one direction. And when you look at the numbers, like taking this year as an example, they've had $48 million in adjusted EBITDA in the first nine months. It's trading, I think, around like 3x EBITDA. And you're like, wow, this is such a bargain. And then when you look at their cash flow and you adjust it for unpaid taxes, they've burned $66 million. So to Jerry's point, what's the value of assets that all they do is burn money? It's zero or negative. So I think that's the inherent issue with trying to chase value for inherently inefficient assets that don't have value. So just something to keep an eye on when you're trying to value hunt. JD : And I guess one last thing, Rena, for me is like just a cute piece of trivia. I think one of the things, like we get a little myopia sometimes where we look at the existing companies and assume that out of these existing companies, the winners will be out of a couple of the Tier 1s, a couple of those are going to be the winners of this future market without thinking about, well, what about companies that you don't know yet, the dark horses that are in the wings that nobody even anticipates yet? One of my favorite examples is, I've talked about it before, like sports betting. And when the Supreme Court allowed states to legalize sports betting in 2018, there was a little bit of a bump in kind of – in a lot of gambling stocks, like Caesars and a couple other ones. Kind of like a little bit of a bump because people thought, oh, wow, look, there's this whole sports betting market now potentially open, look at the huge TAM and all this kind of stuff. What I think the market understood back then, they didn't get that big of a bump, even though you would think, oh, look, they're going to start dividing the market themselves, because DraftKings ( DKNG ) was a startup and then ended up taking big share in that. FanDuel ( DUEL ) was also a startup and ended up getting purchased by one of these public companies later for decent change. And so the kind of “big winners” were not even in that public top set. They were companies that attack that market in a totally different way without the baggage of kind of the original gambling companies and casino companies. And so I think it's just a lesson to not get the kind of myopia where thinking that out of these, there has to be a winner. It's not the case. Like it's not necessarily that some section of these has to be a winner at all. RS : Yeah, we had Seth Yakatan on last year and he was talking about this exactly. If you're looking at the California market, for instance, look at the private players who are making a case for themselves in that type of market and maybe pay attention to how those nimble private without baggage companies are able to grow as the years develop. Certainly interesting to pay attention to. And I think to the point about all the doom and gloom, there certainly, I think whatever horizon you're looking at, whether it's cannabis investing or kind of pick your poison, there's a lot to be disturbed by any horizon you're looking at. And truthfully and honestly and very sincerely, I think Jerry and Nick, you both do such a fantastic job of clarifying things and being thoughtful in your approach to the markets and being as honest as you can be. I for one, very, very much appreciate it. And I very much appreciate you both taking so much time in general and sharing your generosity with investors and with us and with listeners today. So thank you both very much. I really appreciate it. I look forward to the next time. I really enjoyed talking to you both this way at the same time and come on again soon. Editor's Note: This article discusses one or more securities that do not trade on a major U.S. exchange. Please be aware of the risks associated with these stocks.Thunder vs. Grizzlies Injury Report Today – December 29

Bitcoin’s value soared to new heights this week, extending a post-election surge as President-elect Donald Trump vows to boost cryptocurrencies. Wealth advisers and personal finance experts say they’re hearing from more people taking a fresh look at the market, but their advice remains: Dip a toe in, don’t dive headfirst. “My POV on the risks and benefits of bitcoin hasn’t changed much, if at all,” said Samuel Deane, president and CEO of Deane Wealth Management, a financial advisory firm. “Though the incoming administration is pro-crypto right now, I’ve seen enough in politics to know that can change at any time.” The price of bitcoin traded north of $100,000 late last week after clearing the six-figure threshold for the first time Wednesday, as investors bet on the next administration resetting the rules for an industry that has drawn scrutiny from regulators. Trump, who swiftly took credit for the bitcoin milestone, named billionaire investor David Sacks a White House “crypto czar” and tapped crypto advocate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. The president-elect wrote on his social media app that Atkins “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.” But for ordinary investors, the same old tenets apply, Deane said. While he’s a long-term bitcoin investor himself, clients who’ve added crypto to their portfolios are “doing it on their own after we establish the proper guardrails,” he said. “First understand the basics of bitcoin as a decentralized digital currency,” he advised, which includes taking stock of its volatility. The token was trading at around $43,000 back in January and hovered around $70,000 days before the election — but around this time two years ago, it cost just $17,000. Investors have to decide if they can stomach such big swings, Deane said. “This is something that’s been going on forever as it relates to the cryptoverse,” said Lee Baker, founder and president at Claris Financial Advisors. “You get these quick run-ups, but then you get some very sharp pullbacks. The thing you have to caution clients and other investors is that, ‘Hey, listen, you’ve got to be real careful to do this stuff in small doses.’” Baker said his firm has received “multiple queries” from clients looking to learn about bitcoin as it surged following Trump’s win, but he’s heard more interest lately in other coins such as XRP, the cryptocurrency of the Ripple blockchain network, as well. He said he advises first-time crypto investors not to allocate more than 2% of their portfolios to bitcoin. Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds can help limit direct risk and are often a good place to start, Baker said. These options are new, but there are already plenty of popular ones to choose from, such as the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which launched last year after the company won a lawsuit against the SEC that helped open the door to bitcoin ETFs. Some of those investment products have exploded since Trump’s re-election . Yet, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell spoke skeptically of bitcoin this week, saying that it’s still widely treated “as a speculative asset.” “People are not using it as a form of payment or as a store of value. It’s highly volatile,” he said. Contrary to what advocates have long argued, “it’s not a competitor for the dollar, it’s really a competitor for gold,” he said at a DealBook conference Wednesday. Deane also sounded a note of caution amid the recent excitement: “Not every investment that does well needs to be a part of your portfolio.” Crypto devotees, though, are feeling buoyant. Leaders in the space have credited Trump for bitcoin’s surge, heralding a new era of looser regulation after SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s impending Jan. 20 exit . Gensler, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, has taken a hard-line approach to cryptocurrencies, which have contributed to a spate of cybercrimes and scams that the FBI says cost consumers billions of dollars last year alone. Under his leadership, the commission tried and failed to block bitcoin ETFs from hitting the market and also took major crypto exchanges to court in recent years, part of a controversial effort to assert more control over the sector. For the crypto industry, “Gensler’s departure in and of itself was a positive,” said Isaac Boltansky, a director of policy research at the financial firm BTIG. “There will be a sea change ideologically at the commission and throughout government,” he predicted. If confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term succeeding Gensler, Atkins is expected to take a similarly aggressive stance — just in the opposite direction, Boltansky said. He’ll be aided by two sitting commissioners, Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda, who previously worked with Atkins during his earlier stint at the SEC during the George W. Bush administration. But despite the personnel changes, there are “still jurisdictional battles” to come, Boltansky warned, noting that the agency and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have sometimes stepped on each others’ toes over crypto regulation. “There are too many cooks in the kitchen, and they can’t agree on what they’re cooking,” he said. He added that the key question of whether cryptocurrencies should be classified as securities is still being worked through in the courts, beyond the reach of federal regulators. The answer will determine whether they can be treated like stocks. But Boltansky said the next Congress, which will be narrowly Republican-led , is at least likely to deliver more clarity on stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to that of another currency or commodity such as the dollar. In the meantime, prospective investors should think through how and whether crypto fits into their existing progress on other financial goals, said Kevin Mahoney, a certified financial planner and founder of Illumint, a millennial-focused firm. Try to avoid being put “in a much less stable financial situation, or you’ve missed out on some of the other longer-term investments that you wanted to make, because you put too much in,” he said. Rather than bet on what the government may or may not do, “I’d rather have my clients focus on what we know to be true, or what historical stock market data, for example, tells us is likely to be true,” he said. “That’s often going to be much more empowering for them and much more likely to succeed.”Israel appears to be trying to create a buffer zone in south Lebanon to remove the threat from Hezbollah but its effectiveness in preventing cross-border attacks remains to be seen, observers say. Israel began heavily bombarding south Lebanon in September, escalating its months-long battle against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and later sending in ground troops. An official in south Lebanon said more than a dozen border villages have been two-thirds destroyed, while data analysis also points to broad destruction in the frontier area. Peter Harling, founder of Beirut-based research centre Synaps, said Israel appeared to be "creating an uninhabitable no man's land all along the border." Soldiers have dynamited buildings in some villages, Lebanon's National News Agency has reported and troops' videos have showed, and Lebanese authorities have accused Israel of burning wooded and agricultural areas. Israel is aiming to have "some guarantees that Hezbollah is no longer close to the border and cannot initiate any attacks on the northern part of Israel," Orna Mizrahi from the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies told AFP's Jerusalem bureau. But "I don't think that it's going to be a kind of buffer zone... We want people to live on the other side, but we don't want Hezbollah there", she added. Part of the destruction is also due to months of Israeli bombardment that began in response to cross-border strikes which Hezbollah initiated in support of Hamas after the Palestinian militant group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Hashem Haidar, head of Lebanon's official Southern Council which is tasked with assessing the destruction, said 18 villages near the 120-kilometre (75-mile) long Israel-Lebanon border had each been "70 percent destroyed", with an estimated 45,000 homes lost. Military expert Hassan Jouni said that by destroying the villages and burning surrounding areas, Israel sought a clear a line of sight for its observation points. "This buffer zone will be exposed to Israeli controls and surveillance," preventing Hezbollah from "repeating" Hamas's attack from the Lebanese border, said Jouni, a retired Lebanese army general. By November 7 this year, more than half the buildings in 10 Lebanese border villages and towns had been destroyed, according to an AFP count using data from Microsoft Maps and satellite analysis by US researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek. In one of those villages, Mais al-Jabal, more than 1,000 buildings have been hit. The Israeli army has "destroyed the schools, the mosques and the infrastructure -- even the cemeteries have not been spared", said Abdel Moneim Shukair, mayor of Mais al-Jabal, which counted some 30,000 residents before the conflict. In the nearby village of Mhaibib, more than 84 percent of structures had been razed as of November 7, according to AFP's count. Just a few buildings were still standing, mostly on the edges of the village. Further south in Yarun, three-quarters of the some 500 buildings in the centre of the village are gone, while in Aita al-Shaab, more than 60 percent of the village has been razed, with entire neighbourhoods in ruins. Stay informed. Subscribe to our newsletter Asked by AFP's Jerusalem bureau whether it was attempting to create a buffer zone in south Lebanon, the Israeli military said it operates in strict accordance with international law. "It must be emphasised, however, that Hezbollah unlawfully embeds its military assets into densely populated civilian areas, and cynically exploits civilian infrastructure for terror purposes," a military spokesperson told AFP. According to Harling, Israel could be "testing Hezbollah's defences in preparation for more ambitious ground operations", and extending "the doctrine of mass reprisals" through the "wholesale destruction of habitat, as applied to Gaza." But "these actions so far have shown no effect on Hezbollah's willingness and ability to fire missiles and fly suicide drones into Israel", he added. Israel accuses Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, many of whose commanders it has killed in recent months, of wanting to penetrate Israeli territory. Last month, Israel's military said its soldiers located "a large network of underground infrastructure and tunnel shafts" beneath homes in a south Lebanon town that "was intended to aid Radwan Forces" in an invasion of northern Israel. Calev Ben-Dor, a former Israeli foreign ministry analyst, told AFP's Jerusalem bureau that Hezbollah poses "two main threats." "One is the long-range rockets... the other one is the Radwan elite forces that were near the border and that we know were planning an October 7-type invasion," Ben-Dor said. "A security zone would do little against the rockets but could theoretically prevent Radwan Forces returning south," he added. In 2000, Israel withdrew from south Lebanon after 22 years of occupation and a war of attrition with Hezbollah. Israel and the Iran-backed group went to war six years later, and Hezbollah has never respected a United Nations resolution that ended the 2006 conflict. That resolution called for only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers to be deployed in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah enjoys strong support, and forms the basis of truce negotiations spearheaded by the United States and France. Military expert Jouni said the idea of a buffer zone at the border was doomed to fail as residents "will return and rebuild their houses in case of a political agreement" to end the war.

Ireland has bucked the European trend of elections going against incumbent governments, with two of the parties in its ruling coalition in pole position to lead the next parliament. An exit poll showed an appetite for change, with 60% backing opposition parties. But the prospect of an alternative left-leaning government still looks unlikely to materialise. The poll showed leftwing, nationalist Sinn Féin slightly ahead, with 21.1% of first-preference votes, followed by the two main parties in the outgoing coalition, centre-right Fine Gael at 21% and centre-right Fianna Fáil at 19.5%. But with both those parties ruling out a partnership with Sinn Féin , they remain favourites to form the next government. They are expected to get between 30 and 40 seats each, which, with a third party, could make the 87 seats needed for a majority. The deputy leader of the Social Democrats, Cian O’Callaghan, said early tallies suggested it would emerge as the fourth biggest party, with more than eight seats. Making an early pitch for a role in a coalition, he said: “This is our best election in our nine years. After the results are all in, we will talk to all parties. We talked to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael last time, and we will again this time round.” Arriving at the main count centre in Dublin, Sinn Féin’s leader, Mary Lou McDonald, was met with a chaotic media scrum. Flanked by the party’s leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, she declared her intention to try to create a government, saying the result had given Sinn Féin the same legitimacy as the two established parties. “Two-party politics is now gone,” she said. “It’s been consigned to the dustbin of history. That, in itself, is very significant. The question now arises for us: what do we do with that? And we are clear that we want to change people’s lives. I believe another five years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is bad news for society.” The biggest upset is expected to be the wipeout of the Green party, which, with 12 seats, had been the third partner in the outgoing coalition. By Saturday evening, they looked to have lost nearly all their seats, with leader Roderic O’Gorman also in danger. Migration, an inflammatory issue in many recent elections in Europe , failed to fire up the electorate, with an exit poll showing it was the top priority for just 6% of voters, despite violent clashes over asylum seekers in the last year. Housing and homelessness was the the top issue, followed by the cost of living, health and the economy. Counting of votes in the 43 constituencies began at 9am on Saturday but with Ireland’s proportional representation system final results may not be known until Sunday night or Monday. The Green party’s former leader, Eamon Ryan, said he had been “sharing commiserations” with colleagues but “holding heads high”. He told RTÉ: “Change is difficult. Sometimes, when you’re driving change, it upsets things. ... I think in a general election people were voting for government and maybe we were caught in that squeeze. People who wanted to retain the current government have voted Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and not us.” The tallies suggest potential trouble for Fianna Fáil in Wicklow, where the party’s only candidate in the constituency – the health minister, Stephen Donnelly – is in danger of losing his seat. Sign up to Observed Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers after newsletter promotion Jack Chambers, the departing Fianna Fáil finance minister, said the national result was “too close to call” but said the exit poll showed the public did not want the “volatility” that had spread in other countries on the back of the rise of the far right. Gary Murphy, a professor of politics at Dublin City University, told RTÉ:“I think there is a problem that Irish politics has faced since the fragmentation and the economic crash in 2011 – that now we’re not sure who’s going to be in government.” Fine Gael’s director of elections, Olwyn Enright, said the exit poll had been a “positive” prediction for the party, but that she had been “surprised” with survey results that put Sinn Féin’s McDonald as the preferred taoiseach against the incumbent, Simon Harris, who had a difficult final campaign week. In the poll, 34% said they would like McDonald to be taoiseach against 27% for Harris. The inconclusive results mean that all eyes will now turn to the search for coalition partners. Government formation talks could take weeks – with, possibly, no new government until January. Elsewhere, the election threw up surprises. In Dublin Central, Gerry Hutch, a gangland figure released from bail recently in Spain to run for election, looked to be in contention for the last of four seats. Social Democrat Gary Gannon, a certainty for the third seat behind Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe and McDonald, said “austerity from the financial crash” had destroyed some communities, which felt a “real sense of loss and pain over housing and poverty” that the current government had failed to fix in the last five years. As the postmortem into the election began, Bríd Smith of the socialist party People Before Profit–Solidarity blamed Sinn Féin for not setting out a narrative of change stronger and earlier. Another small party, the conservative republican party Aontú, said the country needed alternatives. Its leader, Peadar Tóibín, told RTÉ that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, two parties that emerged from the ashes of the civil war in the 1920s, were “becoming one party in many ways” and impossible to distinguish from each other.Ski areas across the state are in for upwards of 2 feet of snow by Wednesday as the core of a second winter storm to hit within a week descends on the High Country. Major resorts already netted between 3.5 and 9 inches of new snow following a storm Sunday, Nov. 24. Though snowfall was interrupted by a dry spell Monday, winter weather returned early Tuesday morning and is expected to last through Wednesday night. Central mountain areas are favored to see deepest snow totals, though all mountain regions are anticipated to receive multiple inches of fresh power, said OpenSnow.com founding meteorologist Joel Gratz in a Tuesday blog post . “Forecast snow totals have not changed,” Gratz wrote “Most models still show 12-24 inches as an average across the state, with many locations likely cracking the 20-inch mark, and some areas possibly going above 30 inches, especially farther to the west and in the central mountains.” According to estimates from OpenSnow.com , projected Wednesday snow totals at major resorts include: With the most intense snowfall hitting Tuesday night and into sunrise, Gratz predicted a “phenomenal powder morning” Wednesday, though he warned that avalanche risk could be elevated in the backcountry. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center rated avalanche risk for much of the High Country as a 4 out of 5 on the center’s danger scale — considered “high.” An avalanche watch is in effect for most mountain ranges from 5 p.m. Tuesday through 5 p.m. Wednesday while a more severe advisory — an avalanche warning — is in effect Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday for the Anthracite Range in Gunnison County and the area surrounding Monarch Mountain. The most dangerous areas for avalanches are wind-drifted north- and east-facing slopes near ridgetops, according to the information center. While backcountry travel is not recommended, officials issued concerns that deadly avalanche conditions could collide with increased recreation during the Thanksgiving holiday period. “There are still lots of great, safe places to go,” Colorado Avalanche Information Director Ethan Greene said in a statement. “We want people to check the avalanche forecast and make a plan that keeps them out of avalanche terrain or off of the dangerous slopes.” The latest avalanche conditions for the state can be found at Colorado.gov/avalanche . Warnings have also been issued for mountain travel through late Wednesday night, with the National Weather Service warning of “difficult to impossible” travel conditions at times. Winter weather is anticipated to subside by Thursday morning, and it will be “a while before we see another time of significant snow,” Gratz wrote. Early December is expected to be mostly dry, except for the potential to “get clipped by a few storms as they head to our east,” Gratz added. “Heading into this stretch of dry weather, we are lucky because this week’s storms will give us a deep snowpack, and the low sun angle of early December will preserve the snow at higher elevations and on north-facing slopes.” Longer-range forecasts show the next potential for major snow will be around mid-December, though Gratz stated, “That’s too far into the future to trust exact times, so we’ll keep an eye on the pattern and hope that the second half of December is stormier than the first half.”

ESTERO, Fla. (AP) — Kaden Cooper led Louisiana Tech with 16 points, and Daniel Batcho and Amaree Abram made key free throws in the closing seconds as the Bulldogs defeated Richmond 65-62 on Tuesday. Cooper added nine rebounds and four steals for the Bulldogs (6-0). Batcho scored 13 points, going 4 of 6 and 5 of 7 from the free-throw line. Abram shot 3 for 13 (2 for 7 from 3-point range) and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line to finish with 12 points, while adding six rebounds. Delonnie Hunt finished with 26 points and three steals for the Spiders (3-4). Abram scored eight points in the first half and Louisiana Tech went into halftime trailing 35-27. Sean Newman Jr. scored a team-high 12 points for Louisiana Tech in the second half. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by and data from .