Appliance Repair in Ceres, CA

After 66 years of being the place to go in Turlock for your first baseball mitt, your new varsity letter jacket or your favorite hunting gear, Bilson’s Sports Shop is closing its doors.

The sporting goods and firearms retailer, which was first opened in Ceres by the late Bill Bilson in 1955, starts its going out of business sale this week. The shop moved to Turlock after about a dozen years, and has been in its custom-built, two-story Lander Avenue location since 1979.

The elder Bilson retired in 1997, when his son Brad Bilson and friend Steve Moe bought the business from him. The pair have been running the show for the past 25 years.

Bilson’s is among a dying breed of full-service sports retailers in the region, locally owned and staffed by hunting and sporting enthusiasts who’ve tried almost everything they sell. They’ve served generations of customers and said it’s those interactions they’ll miss the most.

“We never want people to feel like they’re a number here,” Bilson said. “That’s something that’s ingrained in me as part of the community. We’ve built a lot of friendships with customers over the years — a lot of friendships.”

But they said there are other aspects of the business they’ll miss less — and contributed to their decision to close. Bilson said it’s become too challenging to be a firearms retailer in California, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation.

That combined with the hit their school-related sporting goods and apparel sales took during the pandemic and continued competition from big-box retailers signaled it was simply time to stop. Moe said recent supply chain issues have also furthered their headaches.

“Its frustrating when someone wants to buy a product but we just can’t get it,” Moe said. “Every industry has been affected” by the pandemic supply chain issues.

Bilson and Moe said firearms can account for anywhere from 60% to 40% of their sales, which flip-flop with their school athletics sales depending on the season. But recent changes, including fines that run $1,000 to $3,000 for incorrectly filling out paperwork, have made their jobs less fun. That, Bilson said, just ran contrary to their unofficial motto, “We sell fun.”

Bilson’s official motto, “The Store for All Seasons,” meant it was the place to go for everything from new life jackets for boating season to skiing gear, hunting weapons, baseball uniforms, sports shoes and a whole lot more.

Bilson said they’ve always prided themselves on hiring people who have deep knowledge in the sports, recreational activities and other gear they are selling. But, he said, increases in the state minimum wage have also increased their labor costs. And they haven’t been able to raise prices to make up for that because of corporate competition. The store used to have a staff of 12 and now has about half that employed.

Like its former Modesto-based counterpart Valley Sporting Goods, which in 2012 closed after 65 years in business, Bilson’s has found that the business of fun has gotten harder. Bilson and Moe attribute their success in today’s Amazon world to their expertise and ability to meet customer needs. That includes completing on time a complicated custom order like for a whole team’s uniforms and gear.

The business partners have vowed to complete all of their existing custom team orders, regardless of where they are in the closing process.

Their huge going out of business sale will start Wednesday, June 22, for invitation-only customers, and then be opened to the general public Thursday. Bilson and Moe have hired a third-party company to run the liquidation sale, and everything down to the fixtures is up for grabs. The discounts will be set to start at up to 50% off.

Because of the outside company’s involvement, Bilson said the best way to find out what’s on sale and when certain items are discounted is to go to bilsonsports.com and register for email updates. Registering also gives customers access to the Wednesday preview event, which will run from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The rest of the going out of business sale starting Thursday will run 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily (except for Sundays, when they’re closed).

They aren’t sure how long the sale will last, with the best guess at “weeks.” Once completed, they plan to put the 7,200-square-foot building, which the Bilson family owns, up for lease. Both men are also contemplating their next steps.

Moe has already moved to Idaho, and Bilson said he hopes to move to what he considers to be a more “business-friendly” state in the near future. After that, who knows, both men said they might even look into opening small sports shops elsewhere separately.

But before they leave, Bilson said he’s particularly proud that his 14-year-old daughter was able to work in the shop as well, as she was this week sorting through upcoming sales items. Her employment completes three generations of Bilsons who all got their start at the store.

“We’ve always want people to feel like family here,” Bilson said. “We know grandmothers who bought her letterman jackets here and their sons bought their letterman jackets here and now their grandkids are buying letterman jackets here. We appreciate everyone who has supported us all these years. We’ve had extremely loyal customers and I’ve gotten so many hugs recently.”

For more information, visit bilsonsports.com or call 209-634-4543.

San Francisco, CA, June 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After DAO was predicted to be the "next big trend", it began to attract the attention of more and more investors, including Elon Musk, the founder of Space X, Sequoia Capital, a well-known venture capital company, and Mark Cuban, a billionaire.

According to Deepdao data on Dec. 30, 2021, more than $11.5 billion crypto asset and nearly 2 million members are managed by 188 DAOs . Those include giants that manage some of the largest encryption protocols, and smaller DAOs that focus on a single aim such as investment, social communities, media, or philanthropy. Among them, there are 56 DAOs with a market value of more than $1million, accounting for 33.9% of the market value of the track, and 8 DAOs with a market value of between $500000 and $1million, accounting for 4.8% of the market value of the track. In addition, the venture capital DAO, which mainly invests in crypto racetracks, has become a new model for sourcing to meet entrepreneurs and reach deal.

Pitango, one of Israel's leading venture capital companies, launched a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to invest in Web3. Pitango manages nearly $3 billion fund and invests in more than 250 start-ups. It is the latest famous venture capital company to increase its focus on cryptocurrencies.

In addition, Sequoia Capital, a global prestigious venture capital and growth investment firm, announced the launch of two new funds. One early stage venture capital fund worth $2 billion to invest in Indian growth products, the other dedicated Southeast Asia fund worth $850 million, which will focus on the Web3.0 ecosystem.

At present, DeFi is experiencing explosive growth, but it has to be denied that there are many difficulties in the current DeFi investment. For example: Centralization seriously leads to a high threshold, which prevents small investment institutions and retail investors from entering the market. Senior investors have more project information and contacts than ordinary investors, and also have more investment channels. The generation of poor financing information has caused high selling pressure on early-stage projects. And traditional financial traders are forced to use centralized custodians in the process of migrating to the DeFi investment field, which naturally creates transaction risks and regulatory risks.

In contrast, DAO is a major innovation in the crypto community. Venture DAO allows more people to participate in the investment process of early crypto project. DAO operates as an organizational structure, raising and managing symbolic assets, while allowing transparent governance, which will have a great impact on the adoption of Web3.0 products.

Ceres, the patron saint of Taurus, is the goddess of the earth and harvest in Greek mythology, and the name of CeresDAO comes from this, hoping to bring valuable assets to investors. CeresDAO is a decentralized digital asset management infrastructure and management protocol based on DAO governance and empowered by Web3.0. On the basis of Web3.0, a new standardized DeFi asset investment model is built to provide decentralized asset management services for cryptocurrency assets, and generate crypto comprehensive digital synthetic assets through centralized smart contracts in the past, so as to reduce the access threshold of DeFi and enable users to obtain more investment opportunities and returns without bearing volatile asset exposure and active fund management.

In the economic model of CeresDAO, the same share and different rights model is adopted (CES and CRS), and the DAO is managed by the holders of CES. Through the proposal and voting process, the CES holders will determine the action and direction of CeresDAO. CES is the equity Token, CRS is the circulation Token, CES can be obtained through casting, while CRS needs to be obtained through staking or secondary market, as well as converting from CES.

CES can be converted into CRS by 1:1, while CRS cannot be converted into CES. There will be a 20% transaction tax when CES is converted into CRS. 25% of this transaction tax will enter the treasury through mainstream cryptocurrency, 25% will enter the LP pool through stable cryptocurrency, 25% of the service charge (50% of which will be repurchased for CRS destruction, 50% for operation), and the remaining 25% for the market.

In the entire CeresDAO protocol architecture, equivalent CES can be cast through VC Pool and Bond. VC Pool and Bond can cast up to 1 billion CESs a day. 50% of them will enter the vault through mainstream assets (50% of the assets in the VC pool will directly enter the vault, and 50% of the assets in the bond will be initially allocated to the standard circular configuration of 1 BTC, 6 ETHs, 30 BNBs and 600 FILs).

In CeresDAO protocol, DAOs and nodes possess exclusive NFT, which can be transferred. After the transfer, the rights and interests are also transferred. DAOs are limited application. (Note: DAOs can enjoy the benefits of nodes). 70% of ETHs used by all foundry NFT will enter the vault through mainstream assets, and 30% for copyright tax.

The treasury has been mentioned many times before because CeresDAO Treasury is a strategic investment asset pool, bearing the vision of CeresDAO. The treasury initially adopts the investment strategy of β (Beta), it only invests in crypto leading assets, and generates income by participating in DeFi loaning contracts and asset appreciation.

With the continuous development and growth of the CeresDAO community and the participation of more professional investors, the vault will adopt the alpha (Alpha Alpha) investment strategy and make investments through the DAO's independence. Maximize the income generated by means of asset appreciation, etc.

The continuous appreciation of the treasury will drive the enthusiasm of all participants in the CeresDAO ecosystem, and the Staking holders of CES can participate in the treasury dividends, of which 80% of the treasury income is to the Staking holders of CES, 10% of the income is to the TOP 50 DAOs, and the remaining 10% is for operation.

All in all, everything is possible for the future development of CeresDAO. And the return logic of CeresDAO not only has investment return, but also has community empowerment value, and may also develop strong monetary and financial value in the future. There is still a lot of room for imagination and potential to build a CRS decentralized ecology in the way of DAO!

CeresDAO aims to rebuild community trust and security, focuses on DAO investment management protocol, creates growth technology and funds for new high-quality start-ups in web3, rebuilds community trust and security, breaks the investment structure and unequal pattern of institutional and capital monopoly, ensures that all people use public infrastructure fairly, and makes high-quality projects truly transparent, fair in investment, and more profitable.

We can imagine that the more high-quality projects invested by CeresDAO, the more Staking, and the growing ecology, the more nodes and DAOs will be, and the higher the security will be. Through the strength of the community, we will work together to create a beautiful blueprint for CeresDAO.

In the future, CeresDAO will strive to build a Web3.0 investment ecosystem, become the world's largest decentralized asset management protocol, become a decentralized "Berkshire Hathaway Corporation", and make everyone a "Buffett" in the crypto industry.

Jointly Create Web3.0 Investment Ecosystem:1?Website?https://ceresdao.finance 2?Twitter?https://twitter.com/CeresDAO3?Telegram?https://t.me/CeresDAOofficial4?Discord?https://discord.gg/ceresdao5?Youtube?https://youtube.com/channel/UCY9nL_ndhUmGO7NL4dE-lnQ6?Medium?https://medium.com/@CeresDAO7?Document?https://ceresdao.gitbook.io/ceres-docs8?Email?cerespunk@gmail.com

Given the dire predictions about the impending (and basically already here) climate crisis, the world can’t get enough climate tech funds right to power new innovation that can address the issue.

FTSE 250-listed investment firm IP Group has been investing in the area previously but has clearly "read the runes" and reshaped its existing investment strategy, thrown it in a pot, given it a stir and come out with a properly dedicated clean tech/climate venture fund. Kiko Ventures, an "evergreen" climate tech fund (because it’s coming from a listed entity, so it doesn't have a 10-year timeline to return a fund like a normal VC) is launching today with a $450 million (£375 million) fund to invest in climate tech and "regenerative" technologies. It will invest at the seed and Series A/B stages or in the public capital markets.

Set to deploy £200 million over the next five years, Kiko will launch with existing assets that it says is already valued at over £175 million, as well as a number of new investments it has yet to announce.

The timing is ripe. After all, the Climate Tech VC newsletter recently suggested global investment in the sector has reached an all-time high of $40 billion last year, a trajectory which is likely to continue.

Kiko Ventures’ founding team comprises the existing IP Group clean tech team, led by Robert Trezona and Jamie Vollbracht, with new partner Arne Morteani, formerly of other clean tech VC funds.

Previous investments from IP Group include fuel cell firm Ceres Power (exited); First Light Fusion; and Oxbotica, (autonomous mobility software used by BP and ZF).

In a statement Trezona (founding partner, Kiko Ventures) said:

We’ve launched Kiko to unleash the full power of human ingenuity by uniting ideas, expertise and capital to unlock a sustainable future. To do this, we’ve created an investment model of truly flexible capital that empowers change, rather than hindering it.

The public on Saturday can give input on changing Ceres City Council district boundaries during the process held once every decade to reflect population changes recorded in the U.S. Census.

City officials are scheduled to review two draft maps Saturday at 6 p.m. in the council chambers before in March adopting boundaries for future elections.

The council may ultimately choose to keep the current districts Ceres created about seven years ago. The four still meet federal requirements for containing roughly equal populations, said Doug Yoakam, a consultant with National Demographics Corp.

Existing districts also comply with the Voting Rights Act by not dividing up Latino-majority neighborhoods, Yoakam added. Last month, Councilman Bret Silveira and Mayor Javier Lopez voted to keep current boundaries, but the motion failed.

Both draft maps are available on the city website’s redistricting page. Compared to the current map, the draft labeled NDC 101 changes the eastern border of District 1 from Moffett Road to Canyon Drive. A border for District 2 also moves north from Caswell Avenue to near Caswell Elementary School.

NDC 102 shifts the boundary between Districts 3 and 4 in eastern Ceres. District 3 stretches south of Whitmore Avenue to include Cesar Chavez Junior High School and La Rosa Elementary, while District 4 extends farther east to Boothe Road.

The public still can submit draft maps before the council plans to adopt boundaries March 14. The deadline to email a map to the city clerk’s office at cityclerk@ci.ceres.ca.us is Feb. 28, per the redistricting website, bit.ly/3L7x2Ka. Maps can be drawn online or on paper.

In addition to federal laws for redistricting, California rules require districts be compact and geographically contiguous. Districts must also have easily identifiable boundaries and not divide communities of interest. Other considerations include future population growth and using current districts as the basis, Yoakam said.

Besides speaking at the hearing Saturday, residents can also share input by emailing comments to the clerk.

This story was originally published February 3, 2022 7:40 AM.

(Bloomberg) --

I was reading the new climate strategy report of one of the nation’s largest utilities, PG&E Corp., as one does, and stumbled over a term that stopped me in my tracks: “Scope 4 emissions.”

Now, here’s the thing: I’ve heard of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions before. They represent different pieces of a company’s climate pollution footprint. Maybe you’ve heard of them, too. After all, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March proposed a new rule that would require companies to disclose this and other climate information. The public comment period for the proposal closed last week.

Scope 1 and 2 were rigorously defined back in 2001 under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the established resource for emissions accounting developed by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Scope 3, the most complicated one, came in 2011. The trio of terms was designed to capture the full sweep of a company’s climate footprint, according to WRI climate expert Pankaj Bhatia. This includes the direct emissions tied to a company’s activities (Scope 1), as well as the indirect emissions from a company’s energy use linked to making its product or delivering its services (Scope 2). It even includes pretty much any other indirect source of emissions associated with a company’s value chain (Scope 3).

So, what do Scope 4 emissions cover? And are they even real?

Bhatia provided a decisive answer to the second question: No, officially they are not an established category under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. And Bhatia would know because he’s the program’s director and has been tracking these conversations for decades.

The fact that PG&E recently used this terminology was news to Bhatia and others interviewed for this article.

PG&E doesn’t dispute the term’s unofficial nature. Spokesperson Lynsey Paulo wrote in an email that in the recent report, “we acknowledge that ‘Scope 4’ is ‘an emerging term for categorizing emission reductions enabled by a company’ and present the term in quotations to distinguish it from Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.”

She went on: “As a utility that provides gas and electric service to millions of Californians, we have dedicated programs and strategies to enable our customers to reduce their carbon footprint and our ‘Scope 4’ goals quantify our 2030 objectives.”

For example, by providing energy efficiency and electrification programs, the company said they can help customers save 48 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent by 2030. And by promoting and supporting the uptake of electric vehicles in the utility’s service area across California, the utility said it can save customers more than 58 million metric tons of CO? equivalent by the decade’s end.

PG&E seems to be using “Scope 4” as synonymous with what others more commonly refer to as “avoided emissions,” said Laura Draucker, Ceres’ director of corporate greenhouse gas emissions. This isn’t the first time this has happened, but it’s not common or widely accepted.

It’s not hard to see why a company would find this appealing. Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions track just how sizable the company’s greenhouse gas emissions are. In a world barreling towards a dangerous 2.7° Celsius of warming due to the rising emissions in the atmosphere, these are almost always unflattering numbers.

Reporting on avoided emissions, in contrast, is a way to show something positive on the climate fight and connect it directly to consumers. Sharing “avoided emissions or reporting on climate benefits of the product you provide — that’s good information for a company to get out there,” Draucker said.

The CDP’s Simon Fischweicher took it a step further, saying such reporting could “send strong signals to investors that this company is investing in the low-carbon transition, not only in their own operations.” (The CDP does not currently track avoided emissions.)

But there’s also the potential such reporting could be a form of greenwashing. The goal of sharing such emissions, Draucker warned, should not be “to take pressure off their Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.”

To be sure, PG&E is tackling its greenhouse gas footprint. In the report, the company outlined its target to be a net-zero energy system in 2040, five years ahead of California’s similar climate goal. The company has also pledged to cut its Scope 1 and 2 goals by 50 percent from 2015 levels by the end of the decade, and to cut Scope 3 emissions by 25 percent from 2015 levels in that same time period. Still, the report didn’t offer a formula or detailed data behind PG&E’s “Scope 4” figures, making it hard to understand what’s fully counted as avoided emissions or how to compare that to any other companies that may follow its lead.

If companies do follow PG&E, Bhatia advises that they don’t adopt the “Scope 4” label and find something else instead.

“I think a corporate player who makes a move that goes into a new direction that could be considered outside the box, should be encouraged,” he said, but — and this was a big but — “at the same time, that direction is not the right direction.”

Zahra Hirji is a climate solutions reporter for Bloomberg Green.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.