Comment on 'Cash mobs' descend on small businesses, snap up merchandise

The state of Colorado is moving forward with its plans to purchase Estes Park landmark The Stanley Hotel and fund a substantial makeover of the property. During its October 2024 board meeting, the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority approved issuing up to $475 million in bonds for the eventual purchase of the hotel. “Since then, RBC (RBC Capital Markets) has been working to finalize the financing structure and we expect to market the bonds beginning (this) year,” said Mark Heller, executive director of the agency, in an email to The Post last month. The proposed funding for the project is about $415 million, but the final price tag is still being evaluated. The bonds, which will be issued though a subsidiary called Space LLC, will help retire debt and acquire the existing Stanley properties, including all of the related land, the Hotel, the Aspire, the Concert Hall, the Carriage House, the Cryogenics Museum and everything related to the Stanley Hotel. The CECFA project will also help fund a $61 million addition to the hotel with 65 new guest rooms, along with a new covered entryway and lobby, and a new $66 million events center, which will be built near the existing Concert Hall and Carriage House. CECFA stepped up with a plan to buy the hotel after a deal to sell the Stanley to an Arizona nonprofit fell through. Since 1981 CECFA has issued over $7.5 billion in bonds, and its project list has grown to include museums, sports facilities, charter schools, alternative high schools and performance spaces, according to their website. The Stanley Film Center will be a two-story building, spanning more than 70,000 square feet, featuring events, exhibits and an archive dedicated to the history and culture of horror films. The film center will be designed by Denver firm MOA Architecture and include an auditorium with a 1,200-person capacity concert hall featuring 600 fixed seats. The center will also house an immersive film museum with both permanent and traveling exhibits, complemented by a 60-seat theater that can serve as part of the tour experience or offer a dedicated space for independent film screenings. Visitors can expect to see movie memorabilia, such as one of the fake axes used in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic “The Shining,” as it was the film center’s first donation.

fizkes/Getty ImagesAshley Herd spent over 20 years working in HR before launching her own company. She said employees should consider the hardest parts of a new role before requesting it. Herd also shared key phrases to use when asking for a promotion or a new position at work. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ashley Herd, the 43-year-old founder and CEO of Manager Method in Atlanta.

Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images; Aurelien Morissard/IP3/Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BIThe fusillade of major announcements from Meta this month — including the termination of its fact-checking and DEI programs and the ascension of its enigmatic content-moderation czar, Joel Kaplan, to head global policy — prompted a familiar churn of political reaction across the left and right.

iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BIIf you are betting on the California wildfires, I don't know what to tell you. Go outside (if it's safe). Do some reflecting. Call a gambling-addiction hotline, probably. Though I suppose the impulse to wager on destruction isn't all bettors' fault — gambling companies have people right where they want them, placing wagers on things most of us never would have imagined just a few years ago.

Blue Origin on Monday morning said it was "standing down on today's launch attempt to troubleshoot a vehicle subsystem issue."Blue Origin MediaBlue Origin was set to launch its New Glenn rocket on Monday morning. The launch was postponed because of a "vehicle subsystem issue," Blue Origin said."We're reviewing opportunities for our next launch attempt," the company said.

India and China are Russia's top oil customers. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pictured in June 2019. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty ImagesThe latest US sanctions on Russia's energy sector impact China and India, altering trade dynamics. The sanctions target Russian oil giants and tankers, raising oil prices to a four-month high.