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GM Ventures is leading a $50 million funding round for Texas startup EnergyX.
EnergyX has developed tech that can extract lithium from brine much more efficiently than current methods.
GM will help EnergyX refine and deploy its tech, while getting dibs on lithium from any projects developed by the startup.

UAW Local 5960 member Kimberly Fuhr inspects a Chevrolet Bolt EV during vehicle production on Thursday, May 6, 2021, at the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant in Orion Township, Michigan.
Steve Fecht for Chevrolet

General Motors said Tuesday its venture capital arm will lead a $50 million financing round for EnergyX, a Texas-based startup developing a more efficient method to extract and process lithium from salt flats.
Lithium is a critical component in batteries for electric vehicles. Under the deal, GM will also help develop EnergyX’s technology and will have first right of refusal to buy lithium from any projects developed by the startup.

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EnergyX demonstrated its technology with a pilot plant in South America’s “Lithium Triangle,” an area of salt flats covering parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile that contains over half of the world’s known lithium reserves.

Brine pools at the Albemarle Corp. Lithium mine in Calama, Antofagasta region, Chile, on Tuesday, July 20, 2021.
Cristobal Olivares | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Currently, miners in the area extract lithium by pumping water underground to flush out the mineral then allowing the resulting brine to evaporate in a series of ponds. The process is relatively cheap, but it only recovers 30% to 40% of the total lithium – while using huge amounts of water and land.
EnergyX’s pilot plant, which opened last year, has demonstrated that its technology can recover 90% or more of the lithium in brine, while using much less energy, water and land than existing processes.
EnergyX plans to use the new funding to build five larger demonstration plants in North and South America.
For GM, a key priority is to unlock a North American supply of lithium, which isn’t cost-competitive with global supplies using current extraction methods. The auto giant believes that EnergyX’s technology could reduce costs enough to make North American lithium mining viable, while minimizing the environmental impact of extracting the mineral.
GM will report its first-quarter results before U.S. markets open on Apr. 25. More

Chipotle Mexican Grill is piloting a new restaurant design to help the company reach its sustainability goals.
Next year, more than 100 of the burrito chain’s new locations will use all-electric equipment and some additional elements from the new design.
The company is aiming to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Some of the new restaurants will include solar panels.
Source: Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill on Tuesday unveiled a new all-electric restaurant design aimed at helping the company reach its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
Next year, more than 100 of the burrito chain’s new locations will use all-electric equipment and some additional elements from the new design. Chipotle has already opened locations with the features in Gloucester, Virginia, and Jacksonville, Florida. A third restaurant is on its way this summer in Castle Rock, Colorado.

On top of replacing gas power with electricity, the new design includes cactus-leather chairs, artwork made from recycled corn husks, biodegradable packaging for food and drinks, smaller cook lines, improved exhaust hoods and heat-pump water heaters. When feasible, some locations will have rooftop solar panels and charging stations for electric vehicles.

The interior of Chipotle’s latest restaurant design
Source: Chipotle Mexican Grill

The company said that it will tweak the new design as it learns more during its implementation.
Chipotle isn’t the only restaurant chain looking to its restaurants to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. Salad chain Sweetgreen began highlighting menu items with lower carbon footprints last year. In 2021, McDonald’s opened a location in Disney World that creates enough renewable energy on site to power the restaurant. And a year earlier, its archrival, Restaurant Brands International’s Burger King, revealed a new restaurant design that features solar panels.     
“With our aggressive development goal in North America, we hold ourselves accountable to reduce the environmental impact of our restaurants,” Laurie Schalow, Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs officer, said in a statement.
Chipotle has set a long-term goal of eventually opening 7,000 restaurants across North America. As of December, it has more than 3,200 locations worldwide, most of which are in the United States.

The company’s goal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is based on its 2019 baseline of 1.4 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent across its supply chain and restaurants.
Chipotle’s other sustainability initiatives include developing plans for more vegan and vegetarian menu items, increasing the amount of local produce it purchases this year to 36.4 million pounds and investing in projects to drive emission reductions in beef and dairy production.      More

The NFL’s Washington Commanders will pay $625,000 to settle allegations brought by the Washington, D.C., attorney general that the organization failed to return fans’ ticket deposits.
Per the settlement agreement, the team will pay more than $200,000 to affected fans, plus $425,000 to the district.
The Commanders have been hit with several claims of misconduct from inside the team’s front office in recent years.

A detailed view of the new Washington Commanders uniforms following the announcement of the Washington Football Team’s name change to the Washington Commanders at FedExField on February 02, 2022 in Landover, Maryland.
Rob Carr | Getty Images

The NFL’s Washington Commanders will pay $625,000 to settle allegations brought by the Washington, D.C., attorney general that the organization failed to return fans’ ticket deposits, the AG’s office announced Monday.
Former D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine sued the Commanders in November, alleging the team cheated residents out of their security deposits collected from season ticket holders and used the money for its own purposes. The lawsuit also claimed the team “intentionally complicated the return process by imposing extra, burdensome conditions that were not previously adequately disclosed.”

Racine alleged the Commanders sold premium seating tickets to D.C. fans since 1996, which sometimes required a security deposit. While the team promised tickets holders they would get their deposits back within 30 days of the contracts’ expiration, Racine alleged the team pocketed the money, sometimes for over a decade, and spent it.
A Commanders spokesperson said in a statement the team hasn’t collected security deposits in more than a decade and has been “actively working to return any remaining deposits since 2014.”
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement on the matter with the D.C. attorney general and will work with the office to fulfill our obligations to our fans,” the spokesperson said.
The team denied wrongdoing in settling the claims.
Per the settlement agreement, the Commanders will pay more than $200,000 to affected fans, as well as $425,000 to the district for “restitution, attorneys’ fees, costs associated with the investigation and contributions to the District’s litigation support fund,” according to a news release from the office of Brian Schwalb, the current AG.

The agreement stipulates the Commanders must conduct a public record search for affected fans and attempt to notify them by multiple means, including phone calls and emails. The team also will have to prominently disclose the refund process on its website and provide the attorney general’s office with “regular reports” documenting its attempts to return the cash.
In a statement tied to the settlement agreement, Schwalb said his office “will maintain strict oversight over the Commanders” to ensure fans are properly reimbursed for the full refund they’re entitled to.
“Our office takes seriously the obligation to enforce DC consumer protection laws by holding accountable anyone that tries to exploit District consumers,” he added.
The Commanders have been hit with several claims of misconduct from inside the team’s front office in recent years. In 2022, a report from the House Oversight and Reform Committee said the NFL and the Commanders had misled the public concerning an investigation into long-standing misconduct in the team’s workplace. More

DAVID, WHO runs a well-trafficked shoe-shine stand at a huge convention centre just outside Washington, was in a good mood as he surveyed the delegates at a recent event there. They were attending the ARPA-E summit, an annual pow-wow put on by the Department of Energy (DoE), and were tipping well. A few weeks earlier, when Donald Trump spoke at that same venue at a gathering of conservative Republicans, David was forced to shut down his stand and lost business. It is not his only grumble about Mr Trump: “When he ran for office he promised to drain the swamp, but he turned out to be the biggest crocodile of them all.”David is right. During Mr Trump’s presidency, lobbyists for every corporate interest went into high gear to try to influence the unorthodox administration of Beltway outsiders. Lots of unfamiliar swamp creatures turned up, too, when they realised that having the ear of the last person to speak to Mr Trump before he made a big decision was lobbying gold. They have since slithered away. But, with up to $800bn in clean-energy handouts now up for grabs over the coming decade, another invasive species is taking their place.The energy industry as a whole spent nearly $300m last year on lobbying, the most since 2013 (see chart 1). Big oil and electric utilities, which had been reducing their spending on influence-seeking before 2020, have ramped it up again; spending is growing in line with that of the biggest lobbyists, big pharma. Renewables firms went from spending an annual average of around $24m between 2013 and 2020, to $38m in 2021 and $47m in 2022. “We’ve now got an interesting new ecosystem of swamp creatures here,” says the government-relations man at one of the world’s biggest renewable-energy companies.The reason is the passage last year of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The misnamed law funnels at least $369bn in direct subsidies and tax credits to decarbonisation-related sectors (see chart 2). It came on the heels of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which also shovels billions in subsidies towards clean infrastructure. Some of the laws offer generous tax credits, with no caps on the amount of spending eligible for the incentives. A mad investment rush, should it materialise, could therefore lead to public expenditure of $800bn over the next decade. An official at a big utility says her firm has projects in the works across America that, if successful, will secure a staggering $2bn in funding from the two laws. The renewables firm’s government-relations man confesses, “We stopped counting…we just have a big smile on our faces all the time these days.” “There is a lot there for a lot of people,” sums up a business-chamber grandee. And, he adds, “A lot of lobbyists are interested in the spending.” The green influence brokers can be spotted in all the usual places, starting with Capitol Hill. A long-time lobbyist-watcher reckons that the IRA “is the most targeted bill of the last 20 years”. More than 2,000 groups had officially declared their interest in the congressional sausage-making that produced the gargantuan law last year. The IRA and the infrastructure law are now on the statute books, of course. But buttering up congressmen and senators may still be worth the effort. “The administration still has to present budgets and members of Congress still have their say,” explains one senior DoE official turned adviser. And, adds a lobbyist for a rising “climate-tech” investment firm, “A member of Congress can always ask a question in a hearing or send a letter of complaint to the White House.”The White House itself is another target. A partner at a top lobbying firm explains that for potentially lucrative but politically explosive issues, “we have been told these are big politically contentious issues so people in the White House want to be looped in.” These include local-content requirements for electric-vehicle manufacturing and the maximum carbon intensity for hydrogen to be considered “clean”. On such matters, the partner says, John Podesta, President Joe Biden’s wrangler for all things climate and energy, “makes the final call”. Love Mr Podesta or hate him, says one energy operative not in the loving camp, “he has a reputation for being practical, and focused on getting things done.”Two executive-branch agencies rank high on the green lobbyists’ hit list. The DoE’s experts will decide which sectors and technologies to prioritise; just its Loan Programmes Office, which aims to provide “debt financing for commercial deployment of large-scale energy projects”, now has a mind-boggling $400bn to lend out, for example. Another target is the Treasury Department, and in particular the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), whose tax experts are fleshing out the rules for green tax credits.The DoE is the more welcoming of the two. “Of course you can lobby the DoE,” says Brian McCormack, a former DoE chief of staff. “Companies go there all the time to talk about what they’re doing.” One challenge now, Mr McCormack says, is that many government employees are still not going into the office regularly. It’s harder to make your case on the phone or via video conference, he reckons.It is harder still at the IRS, which, the clean-tech-investment lobbyist says, “is immune to direct lobbying”. Getting through to the taxmen is possible but requires a more subtle approach. A law firm renowned for its tax expertise has secured a coveted meeting with officials on behalf of a client in part, says one of its partners, by submitting “really good comments” and clever technical papers on the relevant subject. Many IRS officials know their tax law in and out but have little understanding of energy. “You have to have credibility for them to see you and you have to bring them solutions,” she explains.For the lobbyists’ corporate clients, such considerations put a premium on certain sets of skills. One group in high demand is experts in finance and accounting, especially in niche areas such as tax-equity transactions (in which investors agree to fund a project in return for the right to claim a tax benefit) or the ins and outs of whether tax credits can be transferred or stacked on top of each other. One clean-energy lobbyist observes that the new climate-related laws are more complicated than anything in the past, yet the number of people working on them in industry and in government has not changed. “With so much more complexity,” he says, “it is worth paying for your service if you can parse through something in half an hour that takes someone else eight hours.” Another sought-after group are energy nerds. A long-time advocate of upgrading the power grid reports gleefully that he is suddenly very popular as electrifying industries struggle to work out how to get transmission lines and other power infrastructure built. Specialists in nascent technologies on which the new laws shower subsidies, such as carbon removal, which prevents emitted CO2 from entering the atmosphere or sucks it back once it is out, are also in demand. “We are Treasury whisperers,” boasts the top government-relations expert at a climate-tech fund. The group’s investments in things like carbon capture and hydrogen electrolysis have given it deep expertise in these areas, which it is sharing with the tax bureaucrats. It is also sweet-talking environmentalists, whose “ignorant and aggressive positions early on” were often caused by unfamiliarity with either the new technologies or the tax code.The billions of dollars going out through grants, meanwhile, has raised the stature of advisers with experience in writing grant applications. Many firms are baffled by having to write 30-page proposals and working out things like who exactly counts as a “non-federal partner”. Some of the grants now on offer “can make or break a business model”, notes Mr McCormack. Take a company going after half a dozen DoE grants worth $10m apiece, he says. “Isn’t it worth $100,000 to get a professional to help you put together a proposal, identify which offices on Capitol Hill you should visit and get a strategy together?”Specialised consultancies are stepping in to provide the corporate IRA supplicant all these newly prized skills in one place. Boundary Stone Partners, a prominent example of the trend, employs many former DoE officials. Like Mr McCormack, Boundary Stone’s co-founder, Brandon Hurlbut, served as DoE chief of staff. Jeff Navin, the other co-founder, says that the firm’s aim is to act as a translator between clean-energy policymakers, technologists and investors: “The three groups did not talk the same language.” Boundary Stone claims to have helped ease the passage of a demonstration programme for next-generation nuclear reactors (to the benefit of one of its clients, a nuclear-energy startup backed by Bill Gates called TerraPower) and to have assisted solar-panel manufacturers in securing lucrative tax credits for domestic production.How much influence these green lobbyists actually wield in Washington is open to debate. Their clients clearly think they are doing some good. More surprisingly, so do parts of officialdom. A lobbyist for an influential environmental group says that critical staff either fled government or were expelled during the Trump era, leaving agencies “struggling to get work done”. Against this backdrop, many bureaucrats see thoughtful lobbyists as helping “get things right”. Rich Powell, head of ClearPath, a climate-innovation advocacy group influential among Republicans, believes that they can help strike grand political bargains, of which the energy transition will need plenty. “Swamps may be the most vital ecosystem,” he says. ■ More

An OSHA inspection found “dangerous safety hazards,” including blocked emergency exit routes, at a Dollar General in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, the Department of Labor said.
The inspection is one of more than 180 investigations where OSHA has found Dollar General to be jeopardizing worker safety, the DOL said. 
The discount retailer, which made $37.84 billion in sales in fiscal 2022, was fined $245,544.

The exterior of a Dollar General convenience store is seen on March 16, 2023 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Dollar General has again been found in violation of federal workplace safety regulations for “willfully exposing” staff to fire hazards at a Pennsylvania store, the Department of Labor said Friday. 
Investigators found “dangerous safety hazards,” including blocked emergency exit routes and electrical panels, at a Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, store during a November inspection that was sparked by a complaint made to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. 

The hazards were similar to violations found at other stores operated by the discounter throughout the U.S., and the inspection is one of more than 180 investigations in which OSHA has found Dollar General to be jeopardizing worker safety, the DOL said. 
In response, a Dollar General spokesperson told CNBC they “regularly review and refine our safety programs, and reinforce them through training, ongoing communication, recognition and accountability.”
“When we learn of situations where we have failed to live up to this commitment, we work to timely address the issue and ensure that the company’s expectations regarding safety are clearly communicated, understood and implemented,” the spokesperson added. 
The company, which operates roughly 18,000 stores across the country and employs more than 150,000 workers, has been fined $15 million for safety violations since 2017 and “continues to defy federal workplace safety requirements” despite repeated penalties, the agency said. 
“Exposing employees to these hazards can be dangerous, especially in an emergency,” OSHA Area Director Mary Reynolds said in a statement. “Dollar General Corp. has a substantial history of the same violations and hazards found at stores all around the U.S. They must end their repeated failures to correct these violations before an emergency turns tragic.”

Just last week, OSHA said Dollar General was in settlement talks with federal regulators after the retailer was labeled a “severe violator” of workplace safety rules. Dollar General was the first company to be added to the “severe violators” list last fall after OSHA expanded the reach of one of its longstanding safety enforcement programs.
For the issues at the Pennsylvania store, OSHA issued a citation for one willful violation and one repeat violation with $245,544 in proposed penalties, but the fines are unlikely to have a major impact on the retailer’s balance sheet. 
In fiscal 2022, which ended Feb. 3, Dollar General reported $37.84 billion in sales and a net income of $2.41 billion. 
The company has 15 business days to either pay the fines, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. More

Many bars and restaurants have added trivia to bring in more guests and turn higher profits.
Some places have clawed their way back to pre-pandemic numbers, although staffing concerns and inflation have slowed growth.
The popularity of bar trivia is part of the rapid growth of “eatertainment,” a fusion of dining and interactive activities.

Brooklyn Brewery hosts a Thursday trivia night on March 30.
Noah Sheidlower | CNBC

Megan Fitzgerald has always been a trivia fan, but as the director of brand experience at Talea Beer Co. in Brooklyn she wasn’t convinced it would be a good fit for the female-founded brewery.
In February, she begged friends to come to Talea’s first trivia night, fearing only a few players would show up. Instead, more than 70 patrons joined in.

When people go out, “they want something that’s enriching and engaging and is more than just taking shots or slamming beers,” Fitzgerald said. “Trivia is easy and fun, good for big groups or couples, and you can find it usually just down the block.”
After a few weeks of partnering with the NYC Trivia League to host the Wednesday night games, Fitzgerald said Talea trivia nights were bringing in nearly double the revenue of other weeknights, barring special events. The venue has consistently pulled in nearly 20 trivia teams, increasing food and beverage sales throughout the two-hour game. Bar staff get more tips, too, she said.
Across the country, bars and restaurants are adding trivia events to their weekly or monthly schedules to bring in more guests and turn higher profits. New trivia brands have popped up in big cities and small towns, while some long-standing companies have clawed their way back to pre-pandemic numbers. However, the pace of recovery has been slow as the industry faces staffing struggles, according to trivia company leaders and restaurant owners.
While some bars craft their own trivia questions, others partner with trivia or entertainment companies, which charge a flat fee to provide questions, infrastructure and hosts. The basic idea is to bring in teams who are vying for prizes, to boost business or use extra space on what might be a typically slower night — and build a new base of regular customers.
“Trivia is advantageous for us because it’s profitable to have it during those slower times,” said Nick Marking of The Tap Yard in the outskirts of Milwaukee, which has pulled in about 30% more revenue during trivia nights at its five locations.

“The shows run you a certain amount, and then the prizes also, so you have to look at if it’s worth it to have trivia in the long run considering your profit margin is anywhere between 15% and 25% in the bar world,” Marking said.
NYC Trivia League, which hosts trivia at over 100 venues across New York City, recently surpassed its weekly event count from early 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The league charges a flat fee for bars and is free for players.

Irving Torres-Lopez hosts Trivia Nite at the Brooklyn Brewery. 
Noah Sheidlower | CNBC

Cullen Shaw, one of the league’s founders, said teams are larger than they were before Covid — averaging about 3.5 people — when many bars barely held on to their trivia nights. Shaw, who hosts trivia nights at The Gaf East on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, added that the league’s switch to a digital platform from pen and paper has allowed for more efficient games.
“We fill the place up, and I don’t think that would be the case if they just put on a basketball or hockey game and hoped a crowd would come in,” he said.

The growth of ‘eatertainment’

Shaw said the NYC Trivia League has recently brought in venues that never saw themselves as trivia bars, adding over a dozen to its lineup this year alone. Retention rates are up in 2023, and the league has become more selective with venues and hosts.
“I’m sure there’s a million trivia apps, but there’s just something about a group competition, there’s something about community when like-minded and competitive people get together in a space to play a silly game but everybody understands the rules,” Shaw said.
According to Mike Kostyo, a “trendologist” at Datassential, the rapid growth of trivia nights is part of a broader move toward “eatertainment,” a fusion of dining and interactive activities ranging from bar trivia to pickleball-dining concepts. Eatertainment has been beneficial for many bars and restaurants given it doesn’t significantly add to labor costs, Kostyo added.
“You’re having a lot more customers in your venue, so you need more back-of-house, front-of-house staff, but it’s not something where you need to hire somebody to manage that. It’s usually an outside vendor doing the trivia program,” Kostyo said.
According to a Datassential report from last year, 82% of Americans have been to at least one eatertainment venue, and over 50% of those diners said they were “very interested” in revisiting such an experience. Eighteen percent of respondents said they would visit eatertainment venues more often if they had regular trivia nights.
“On a trivia night, we are easily doubling our sales from the previous night,” said Will Arvidson, tasting room manager at Brooklyn Brewery, who said the space usually brings in about 150 people for its Thursday trivia event. “It’s sometimes difficult for us to sit people, but we find a way.”

Brooklyn Brewery has been hosting trivia nights with the NYC Trivia League since 2019.
Noah Sheidlower | CNBC

Victoria Dawes and Kristina Cheng, who teamed up on a recent Thursday at Brooklyn Brewery, said they’ve been playing bar trivia for about a decade and agreed it’s more popular now than pre-pandemic. Both said they carve out time each week to bond with friends and show off their random knowledge.
“I feel like we had lost so much connection with each other, and trivia has been a particularly fun way to have very normal interactions again,” Dawes said.
The rise of eatertainment comes as inflation compels more Americans to scrutinize how they spend their money.
According to Datassential’s February Table Stakes Report, 39% of consumers said they’re pulling back on eating out, though Kostyo said cost-conscious people are looking to eatertainment venues for value when they do go out.
“A lot of consumers, they’re stuck at home all day and they don’t really socialize, so they’re looking for those opportunities from the food service industry to socialize with friends and family again,” Kostyo said.
“But that doesn’t mean that they’re back in droves,” he added.

Brooklyn Brewery hosts a Thursday trivia night on March 30.
Noah Sheidlower | CNBC

Teams can win cash prizes — as much as $50 or $100 for first place at some bars — or shots, food or free merchandise. Those possible winnings could encourage more spending from players and potentially offset costs for budget-conscious trivia-goers.
Conrad Corretti, who says his trivia team usually places in the top five at Brooklyn Brewery and other venues, said he’s been more likely to cut back on spending on other weeknights so he can spend “more liberally” at bar trivia.
“You’re showing up with your group, and you don’t really have to interact with other people, so it’s been a good activity to hang out with people you don’t always see and have a good time,” he said.

Bumpy road to recovery

With so many new venues hosting trivia nights, Kostyo cautioned bars may “cannibalize each other” as more businesses try to plant their flag in the trivia space. He’s seen more niche topics at trivia nights pull in specific audiences.
To attract more consumers, some companies, like Geeks Who Drink, have recruited new quiz masters and brought on client managers to cultivate relationships with venues. Bryan Carr, marketing director for the trivia company, said the company launched a “twitch” quiz still running today, and it maintained its 15 plus-person writing team to keep creative content flowing.
Bringing back longtime venues and onboarding new ones has been a “slow-moving process,” but the company has continued growing its presence in cities including Denver, Chicago and Austin, Texas. It does full-service pub quizzes in around 650 venues, though that number was around 1,000 pre-pandemic.
“We try to provide venues with a great starter kit to make sure that their event gets going, and we know that it takes at times two to three months to really build up that consistent following,” Carr said. “They really can see a big difference from before they had trivia and then when they have it on these slower off-nights.”

On a trivia night, we are easily doubling our sales from the previous night. … It’s sometimes difficult for us to sit people, but we find a way.

Will Arvidson
Tasting room manager, Brooklyn Brewery

Joshua Lieberthal, founder of California-based company King Trivia, which has venues in about 35 states, said he’s seen considerably more trivia nights today than before the pandemic. However, with tighter profit margins, many bars have been forced to do “vastly more” weekly events to stay afloat, which might explain why the company went from around 200 weekly venues in 2019 to about 325 now.
Still, about 30% to 40% of King Trivia’s pre-Covid clients went out of business, and the rebuilding process has been bumpy.
“It wasn’t like you just got back your old clients when things restarted — it was starting from scratch,” Lieberthal said. “Amazingly, we were more profitable pre-pandemic than we are today, even though we’re so much larger than we were before.”
Attendance and retention are back, more or less, to pre-pandemic levels due in part to the company’s expanded sales and customer services teams, he said. Though every week, Lieberthal said another client goes on hiatus or pushes back a launch date due to staffing troubles.
“Because everyone gets paid more, because it’s hard to staff, you need more people working behind the scenes to make it all happen,” Lieberthal said. “That’s an unfortunate reality that the breakeven point is much higher in this industry than it used to be, but thankfully so many venues want to run shows that it’s doable.”
For Wisconsin-based America’s Pub Quiz, founded in 2007 by Michael Landmann, everything from staffing to the cost of pencil boxes has slowed the company’s pace of growth compared to before the pandemic.
By 2020, the company had 205 venues in eight states. It’s now back to around 175 despite having to start from scratch and contend with higher costs of doing business.
The company created an online system that could handle dozens more teams, but Landmann noticed many venues were unable to keep up with increased demand. Others with ample staff couldn’t find a suitable trivia host.
Tyson Sevier, general manager at Omaha, Nebraska-based Varsity Sports Cafe, which has partnered with America’s Pub Quiz for a decade, said locations have often been short one or two employees on a busy trivia night. That’s a far cry, he acknowledged, from the “employee horror stories” he said he’s heard from other bar owners in the city.
Still, trivia nights at Varsity Sports Cafe pull in $2,000 to $3,000 more compared with other weeknights, he said.
“We have more and more people calling that want to play, so I think that there’s definitely an interest such that only a couple of bars had trivia years ago and now it seems like every bar has it,” Sevier said. “You have to do it now to be competitive.” More

The two-part auction, dubbed “Victoriam,” features memorabilia from Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant, among others.
Bidding for the auction closes April 11.
Michael Jordan’s Air Jordans from Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals are expected to net somewhere between $2 million and $4 million.

Michael Jordans 1998 NBA Finals Air Jordan XIIIs sneakers are displayed during a press preview in New York on April 6, 2023 at Sothebys for the upcoming auction Victoriam, a special two-part curated collection of sports artifacts.
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images

Michael Jordan’s shoes from Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals could be yours — if you have a couple million dollars to spare. 
Sotheby’s is hosting a two-part auction of game-worn sports memorabilia, with Jordan’s signed sneakers serving as the cornerstone for an stacked lineup of rare items. 

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The game-worn Air Jordans are estimated to sell for somewhere between $2 million to $4 million. Currently, the price to beat is a cool $1.8 million.
If bidding climbs much higher, the auction could become record-breaking. When Kanye West’s Air Yeezy samples sold for $1.8 million in a private sale in 2021, they were estimated to be the most expensive sneakers sold to date.
The auction, dubbed “Victoriam,” is a treasure trove for wealthy sports fans, featuring everything from Tom Brady’s 2004 uniform to the shooting shirt Kobe Bryant wore the afternoon of his historic 81-point performance in January 2006.  

Kobe Bryants 2004 Los Angeles Lakers warmup jacket is displayed during a press preview at Sothebys in New York on April 6, 2023 for the upcoming Victoriam auction, a special two-part curated collection of sports artifacts. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images

Other notable items for auction include the late Brazilian soccer icon Pelé’s 1975 debut jersey for the New York Cosmos, which helped raise soccer’s profile in the United States. 

Brazilian soccer star Peles 1975 New York Cosmos ‘Triumphant Debut’ match-worn jersey is displayed is displayed during a press preview at Sothebys in New York on April 6, 2023 for the upcoming Victoriam auction, a special two-part curated collection of sports artifacts. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images

The football used for the game-winning field goal during this year’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles is also being auctioned.

Roger Federers 2011 French Open match-worn and signed sneakers are displayed during a press preview at Sothebys in New York on April 6, 2023 for the upcoming Victoriam auction, a special two-part curated collection of sports artifacts. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images

Other items for auction include various memorabilia from tennis legend Rafael Nadal, NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Luka Doncic, and others. Bidding closes Tuesday. More

Walmart announced Thursday it plans to add electric vehicle charging stations to thousands of U.S. stores by 2030.
The big-box retailer said it’s in the process of identifying suppliers, though it plans to own and operate the EV charging stations in its national network.
Walmart’s more than 4,700 stores and 600 Sam’s Clubs are located within 10 miles of around 90% of Americans.

Walmart logo is seen on the shop in Streator, United States on October 15, 2022. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Jakub Porzycki/ | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Walmart announced Thursday it plans to add electric vehicle charging stations to thousands of U.S. stores by 2030.
The company announced it would expand its EV fast-charging network to Walmart and Sam’s Club locations across the country, adding to the nearly 1,300 EV stations currently in operation at 280 of the company’s locations. Walmart did not provide more detail on the investments.

The big-box retailer said it’s in the process of identifying suppliers. It plans to own and operate the EV charging stations in its national network. The company expects an average of four chargers to be installed at each participating store, Reuters reported.
In the past, Walmart has worked with EV charger providers EVgo and Electrify America. The company has grown its network substantially over the last two years.
“Easy access to on-the-go charging is a game-changer for drivers who have been hesitant to purchase an EV for concerns they won’t be able to find a charger in a clean, bright and safe location when needed,” Vishal Kapadia, senior vice president of energy transformation, said in a statement.
The planned expansion would make EV ownership more reliable, Kapadia said. Walmart’s more than 4,700 stores and 600 Sam’s Clubs are located within 10 miles of around 90% of Americans, according to the company.
The Biden administration recently announced an investment of over $7.5 billion to launch a national charging network, particularly in lower-income and rural communities. This will likely boost EV sales, which accounted for 7% of new U.S. vehicle registrations in January. More